One of the most recent falsehoods spread about the merger revote is that the pro-merger groups are bitter about losing by a mere 19 votes.
The fact is that two different petitions were submitted at the same time for the April 13th, 2021 voting date. One petition is for the Village to pursue full separation. This is a Village-only vote. The other petition is for a merger revote. This is an entire-Town vote.
Both petitions were led by the SAME group. This was done so that the whole Town has one final chance to merge. If a yes on merger fails, the Village will pursue a yes on full separation. A yes on full separation will pass.
Full separation is NOT a threat from the Village. It is a warning to all of us that the consequences of allowing gossip and conspiracy theories to masquerade as fact are real.
What worries me is that the lies are easy to fact check, yet very few people publicly push back. It allows those pushing misinformation the power to bully those who speak out and try to silence them.
We continue to let this happen when we say nothing.
The saddest part is that a lot of the merger hesitancy is about taxes and the TOV paying more. We are so focused on having to pay more that we’ve not spoken about what we pay in taxes now.
The truth is that the TOV pays LESS than cost for a number of services that primarily we (TOV residents) use. Those services are subsidized by the Village.
Here is a infographic to outline how the Village pays for duplicate services.
Proof of our under payment is in the numbers. If the Village decides to fully separate, TOV taxes are estimated to increase as much $10,101 over 13 years for the average TOV home. A portion of that is for TOV residents to fill the gap on the services paid for by the Village that they do not use.
No one is bitter and no one is making threats. The Village is giving us all one LAST chance to come together.
It’s something we all must be aware of for our Town, our friends in and out of the Village, and our pocket books.