Updated – Saturday, November 22, 2008 10:15 am
In an attempt to give our readers the facts behind the cut in funding to the Washington County beach, the Huletts Current contacted Bob Banks, Town Supervisor of Dresden. Mr. Banks is our representative on the Washington County Board of Supervisors.
To begin, the County is under tremendous pressure to cut their budget not because spending is increasing, but because both revenue and state aid is declining because of the overall economy. It was not reported in the Post Star that the Board of Supervisors actually cut $750,000 from the budget yesterday. They should be commended for this stance, because the last thing a bad economy needs is more taxes. We in Huletts have struggled under the burden of high propery taxes for many years.
Mr. Banks assured us that the Washington County Beach will be open this upcoming year. It appears to him that the operation of the beach may be able to pay for itself with increased user fees and some adjustments in spending. If Washington County is not able to make these adjustments, the Town of Dresden will enter into some type of agreement to run the beach and to see that the beach remains open.
We will keep our readers informed as this develops.
Dresden recently released it’s 2009 budget which shows the amount to be raised by taxes will be $1,500 less than 2008. This translates into a 0.50 percent reduction in taxes from 2008 to 2009. While the budget grows a little over 9 % from the 2008 amount, this growth is offset by new revenues. Congratulations to our Dresden Town Board for lowering taxes 2 years in a row. This is a perfect example of keeping government spending and taxes in check, a lesson that the Whitehall School District hasn’t learned yet.