Keep looking for ways to reduce taxes

Editor:

Recently there were two very good letters to the editor, one concerning the county’s five vibrant school districts and another about the outrageous tax increase in the town of Murray.

How are these two connected? They both obviously involve taxes. If we want to keep vibrant schools in Orleans County we need to start looking at innovative methods for cutting costs while maintaining, and even improving, the quality of our students’ education.

Many other states have one superintendent per county while here in Orleans County we have five! We could save several hundred thousand dollars across the county in this one area.

However, there are many in the “establishment” who would oppose such an effort. This is one way to cut costs without impacting what is taking place in the classroom. There are more.

I do not live in the Town of Murray but do find it worrisome since this same thing could happen in Kendall, or anywhere across the county.

I urge you residents of Murray to ask your board members what, exactly, are you getting with this increase and to compare with the other towns in the county.

Orleans County is one of the poorest counties in the state, according to the state and we rank 8th when compared with the 8 western counties in New York.

A county in a financial situation such as ours needs to find ways to cut costs, not simply continue raising taxes.

Ken Longer
Kendall