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Posted: Friday, 06 November 2009 12:36AM
Discussing Downsizing in Hamburg
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Hamburg, NY (WBEN) -- In less than two weeks, voters in Hamburg will decide on whether to downsize the town board from five members to three. A discussion on the topic was held Thursday night, where voters heard both sides of the issue.
Regionalism advocate Kevin Gaughan says while the town has already taken steps to downsize offices in the government, it should not stop there. "They've been terrific steps to reduce costs and consolidate other departments, and what I wanted to convey is that this should apply to themselves."
Hamburg Supervisor Steve Walters says while cutting two board seats would save the town $37,000 in costs, that savings would likely be wiped out by rising costs in other areas. And he warns another person may have to be hired. "We recently reconfigured the work the town board handles, to increase the workload and shift the work around in an effort to save $300,000. If we go down to three board members, the work is going to be untenable. You're going to have to reconfigure those work duties again, and you very well could end up hiring somebody to pick up those extra duties," notes Walters. Walters says downsizing the town board won't change the structure of government, the reason he contends taxes are so high in this region.
Gaughan bristles at the arguments savings are miniscule. "It reflects the culture that infects our public servants for too long in this community, thinking there's no reason to change unless there's dramatic savings," says Gaughan. He's heard that argument before in other towns where there were downsizing votes. Four towns have voted to downsize already.
Hamburg voters get the final say on November 17th.
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