Village of Albion should be compensated for being county seat

Editor:

Something that has always been perplexing to me: the taxpayers in the Village of Albion lose out on tax revenue for all the properties of the Orleans County government and services and yet those offices handle all services for the residents of the entire county of Orleans.

As a result of this we continually lose property tax dollars that are not being collected for those properties. The Village of Albion has the same bills to pay that other villages have, but the others do not have to lose out on property tax revenue for the County Office Building, Treasurer’s Office, County Courthouse, County Clerk’s Office, County Highway, County Jail and County Mental Health.

How is it that the towns are not reimbursing the Village of Albion to at least recover that tax revenue that we lose out on.

Now with the purchase of the GCC college campus and the old Norstar Bank, again the village loses out on that property tax revenue. Albion taxpayers should not be covering losses of the tax dollars we are losing for these county-owned properties. These services are shared and therefore the tax loss should be shared.

It only makes sense to me and perhaps the Village of Albion government that we would fight to have the other towns reimburse us a percentage of what we lose in County Office spaces and those exemption dollars. Those towns should share the loss that we suffer and reimburse that loss on a percentage basis.

What’s fair is fair – every town should pay its share.

Maureen Bennett

Albion