Umm - uh - NO! PLEASE do not raise our taxes 26.5%!!!! I know this isn't what the mayor is advocating. I know we all like our services and our fire and police depts, our building dept etc. This constant increasing in taxes HAS to stop though. So I say - CUT away Joe and we the people will support you.

slash away Joe!

It's easy to govern when times are good. When times are tougher, so are the choices. But we already have sky-high taxes, so raising them now is a choice voters won't buy.

We all have to live within our means, so what I expect from my government is to do more with less, to face the budget squarely and distribute the pain by making tough but smart cuts. All departments should bear their share of the burden. No exceptions.

This won't be easy but it has to be done. There is opportunity in adversity and we expect our leaders to have the wisdom to see it and the courage to seize it.

As John Lennon once sang: Instant Karma's gonna get you/ Gonna knock you right off your feet"

What Mayor Gross has done, quite effectively I think, is to use the budget process to starkly illustrate a snapshot of where we are, fiscally speaking, in the village. In past years, without adequate input from the village treasurer, the village board has essentially made a series of educated guesses to create a budget which was simultaneously rational and hopeful. Our fabled "five-year plan" (which seems to exist in name only), was basically a mission statement to discipline ourselves toward austerity budgets which, we had hoped, would get us over the hump of a disproportionate amount of debt. Trustee Vatter has brought to the fore an additional wart on our village complexion; namely, our rolling deficit. This condition is very much real (and has been for as long as most can remember), and it is most certainly hindering us as a village, in terms of our standing with vendors, our credit rating , and the rates we are quoted when considering any possible financing. Add to this the difficulties which our business community is struggling through (and to remind everyone to shop locally as much as possible).

Sadly, all of these chickens have come home to roost at the worst possible time, economically speaking. As we face the prospect of greatly diminished revenue from the county and state on very large revenue lines for us (namely, sales tax and real estate tax revenue), while biting the bullet on contractual obligations for increases in pension benefits, salary increases, and healthcare costs, we have little or no wiggle room left in our control. Additionally, any gains we might realize in our upcoming contract negotiations or in possible healthcare plan savings will only come after this budget is required by law to be finalized. As any sailor would do, we need to batten down the hatches, and prepare for the worst.

That being said, I do believe that we can find a balance to schedule our debt obligations in an efficient way, and to get EVERYONE on the village's payroll to function in the most cost-conscious way possible. We need to come together as a village to meet this challenge. To our credit, we can find some solace in the fact that we consciously set out on this debt reduction path years before our country woke up to the predicament it's now in, so that we are now in less danger of being debt slaves than we would otherwise be.

The mayor and board are not looking to drive a stake into our collective heart. I remain optimistic that we will get through this, and onto sustainable economic footing for our future.