Yates candidate questions town numbers for fiscal stewardship

Editor:

To the Yates Town Board, your letter in the Orleans Hub on 9/6/23 in response to my letter of 9/4/23 stated the following:

“To let the Hub readers decide for themselves whether we are prudent stewards of the taxpayers hard-earned money, we offer the following: From 2021-2023, the Town ‘Inside Village’ tax rate was either flat or decreased each year (2021 = 3.66, 2022 = 3.55, 2023 = 3.66).  And while the Town ‘Outside Village’ tax rate has increased 2% per year (2021 = 4.83, 2022 = 4.93, 2023 = 5.03), the combined tax rate increase each year averaged below 2%.”

The above numbers are correct, but here is “The rest of the story,” as Paul Harvey would have said.

Let’s go back to one year prior to 2021. In 2020 the Town “Inside Village” tax rate was $2.49.  Math shows us that the $3.66 tax rate in 2021 noted above was a $1.17 or 46.9% increase! In 2020 the Town “Outside Village” tax rate was $4.34. Math shows us that the $4.83 tax rate in 2021 noted above was a $0.49 or 11.3% increase.

I will stop there and “let the Hub readers decide for themselves whether (you) are prudent stewards of the taxpayers hard-earned money.”

Time for sweeping change. This November 7th please elect both Paul Lauricella and Steven Colon on the “Conservative” or “Taxpayers First” line to Yates Town Councilman.

Paul Lauricella

Yates