Because we don't pay enough in taxes as it is! I have no water service, no sewer service and they dont plow my road but I get the luxury of paying over $10,000 a year in taxes. Cornwall is great!

Finally!
Now I can get rid of some of that pesky money I have left sitting in the bank.

"The impact of tough economic times..."

By that logic our taxes should get reduced in *good* economic times, right? Yeah, I didn't think so. They're going to just keep taking and taking until no one wants to live here anymore.

This is insane!!! So cut more services if we can't afford the current levels. ugh!!!

If you think this is bad just wait until you see what happens when the new County Legislators get seated and the County Executive has his Republican majority back. Then the County Executive will have to admit the Miracle of the county budget was really a Mirage; Then he will tell everyone that: we have to build a new county building to replace the one that he has refused to repair properly in support of his desire to build a new building; We have to sell Valley View because it costs too much, when in fact it is due to his reporting of inflated costs in the budget document for that facility and his management of that facility that has brought that facility from a surplus when he 1st took office to a deficit of over $21 million; and, the cost of the new OCCC Campus will cost more than expected. All of this will fall on the taxpayers of this county.

What he will not tell you is that the Water Master Plan when passed will eliminate Home Rule and give the County the power to do whatever it wants with our water supply. With the elimination of Home Rule this enable the county to spread the cost of any links to ALL of the residents of this county without the approval of any local municipal leaders. (The county has said that they would never do that. However, if their management of the OC Sewer District is an example of how they will manage water, do not believe them. The Water Master Plan document clearly states that if a community objects the county can do what it wants if it is consistent with their regional water supply strategy.) Then if the community is in a ?Smart Growth Area: to get a link all a community will have to do is ask for it. Now think about the 4 wells in the Cornwall aquifer that are owned by a community outside of your town.

So you have not seen anything yet.

I admit, I don't know much about the budgets of CoH or ToC but reducing the volunteer fire company, ambulance corps and police force is not a positive thing by any stretch of the imagination. There has been a lot of growth in this area over the last 50 years which means many new buildings including a new hospital cancer annex. The tax increase is tough to take for any one but there must be other reductions in spending that can be cut rather than Fire, Ambulance Service and Police.

Anyone recommend someone to build a well for me????? The taxes are insane. I have a septic and am glad - but I am seriously thinking of adding a well in the future, cutting the city out of that loop!

holy crap - this is a miracle! they must have figured out how to get blood from a stone! I wonder, how are the people in the McMansions surviving this onslaught? Forget about the rest of us - we are already screwed. (begging your pardon)

We have NUMEROUS not for profit properties in Cornwall who pay zero property taxes. I've been saying for years that should be reevaluated as it has been impacting the taxpayer much worse then previous years. Also the new Cornwall/St Lukes a non profit where the people who run the hospital are paid in the 200k range should begin paying for fire and police service. Our volunteer FD, where the personnel volunteer their time and we bond out the purchase of very expensive equipment are called to the hospital for tripped fire alarms. I'd like to know the number of times they respond and I'd like to charge a dollar amount directly to the hospital for our services to them. After all they were nice enough to charge me $2500 for a trip to the emergency room last year. What is wrong with charging for a FD response to an unwarranted alarm activation. Everything should be looked at as a source of taxes not just the homeowner. It's time to reexamine all these not for profit enterprises. According to an article in the NYTimes, non profits pay their CEO's appx 20% more then for profits. If they have money for that they have money for some amount of taxes on the local level.

Excellent points, Mr. Wilkinson. And this is about good government, not about political parties.

For, just as Senator Larkin now wants Democrats blamed for all the budget ills in Albany, so should Republicans at the County and Town levels be held to account for the financial pain their decisions have wrought.

When times are good and taxes are rolling in, governments at all levels find it too easy to order up equipment and expand services and departments. Then the tough times come, and the bills still have to be paid.

But we completely miss the point if we confine ourselves to looking at taxes NOW, when we ought to be looking even more critically at spending THEN. Whether they be in DC, Albany, Goshen or right here, the governments that "ran the tabs" are the ones responsible for the legacies of debt and infrastructure they've left on the table for all of us to pay.

Until we as voters realize that, we're not only doomed to the endless spend-then-tax political cycling we've seen during the last generation in NJ, but we will deserve it.

seems critical to me that the community needs to grow our dying main street to help with the tax burden-

Mr. Wilkinson, although I don't know that the types of shops you list are necessarily what Cornwall needs, I certainly would patronize them (well maybe not the organic-fibers clothing store). And I "actually live here." It takes all kinds of "realities" to make a vibrant town. I'm not sure why the types of shops you mention deserve your scorn. Can you explain?

the masterminds behind Project for Public Spaces did an amazing conference at Mt. St. Mary's on how to vitalize downtowns our Town Supervisor and all the council were invited and not one came, despite thier disinterest the members of Project for public spaces toured Cornwall and had lots of tangible solutions for our main street- Solutions that would make sense for Cornwall, some that was could be done with little investment and provide change immediately-Like code violations- the old book store broken window- why we allow that to languish..signage laws..things that would make sense- they talked about the misconception of needing more parking- it just seems to me is that we are allowing complacency-doing nothing as an answer-I applaud the work Deke has done in our community and we need more forward thinkers-disclosure- although I continue to say our community we moved to Connecticut about three weeks ago and I Love walking to my Whole Foods-and the other small shops that allow me to shop and get errands done without getting into my car.

Make budget cuts! Two Police stations two volunteer fire firefighter services. If you look at the records the board members have not had their property taxes reasessed recently. I have lived here my whole life and year after year I watch my mother struggle to pay off the increasingly higher taxes Cornwall enforces. It feels as if we are being pushed out of this quaint town. Find budget cuts and be more fiscally responsible. Now is a bad time to increase taxes especially with winter around the corner and utilities expenses keep rising.

Let's not forget when Scenic Technologies was here, and wanted to expand--they were thwarted by the Village and wound up moving out to New Windsor. There go the taxes, there go the people buying lunches and dinners ...

Both the town and the village need commerce--thriving commerce--to stay alive. Sure, "quaint" is nice. But empty and dead isn't "quaint."

I live in NZ, but because my mother was born in Cornwall, I have for some time watched the goings on. I feel sad that once again another small town seems to be self-imploding for one reason or another. I note Scenic Technologies and possible influx of money and the stalling of that idea. Today, you need to think laterally if you are to survive. You are a wonderful town/village. Silicon valley only became successful because they had to 'get together' for a purpose. Small places need to be of 'one mind' too. I do hope and pray that you can, like the disciples of Jesus in the upper room, (I"m not preaching, just using the idea) can come together with a renewed purpose in the new year determined to find a way to succeed, without the huge burden the new taxes are obviously having on some members of the community. I don't know, of course, what taxes any of you pay, but my mother here paid $3800 per year, for a small house. Now she's passed, I am coming for one day to Cornwall, and would be interested to meet anyone who would be interested. I will be there on about 6th January 2010.
Sandra Van Praag
Would anyone be interested in meeting me on the 6th January when I come for one day on my trip to see relatives? I would be most interested to meet any of you.