Unify Piermont (unifypiermont@live.com)
General Election – November 3, 2009
As a non-partisan group of Village residents dedicated to returning fiscally responsible government to the Village, Unify Piermont believes that what Piermont needs, more than anything else, is a viable opposition. As Todd Gitlin, an American sociologist, political writer, novelist, and cultural commentator has noted “Right now, we have no possibility of politics because we have a one-party state.” Unfortunately, this applies to Piermont in the November 3rd General Election.
In Piermont we have had a one party system for a number of years. This has lead to a paternalistic “we know what is best for you” attitude by several administrations. Valid concerns expressed by residents about their ever increasing taxes and about the level of village debt are ignored. These same administrations have also encouraged a divisive environment, pitting people from one section of the village against people from other sections, labeling them “Hillsiders” or “Landing people” rather than “Piermonters”.
Earlier this year (March 3, 2009) the Village Board had a presentation by one of its members called Cost Containment and New Revenue Generation which attempted to answer two questions:
Why do my taxes keep going up?
Why doesn’t the Village Board do a better job of controlling costs?
It is 31 pages and has some very nice charts and graphs, but essentially says taxes will continue to go up and we cannot control costs. These are unacceptable answers to the taxpayers in Piermont.
In terms of Cost Containment, the report said nothing can be done, the “barriers to cost containment by the Village exist at the State level, and have to be addressed at that level.”
A recent editorial in Our Town addressed the problems local government face with regard to binding arbitration and noted local boards should not “take the easy way out”, should not pass the buck back to the New York State Legislature and should get “serious about changing the system”.
The answers in Piermont on March 3rd were the state has to do it, we can do nothing. In other words, exactly what the Our Town editorial was decrying as “taking the easy way out”.
No campaign literature has been issued by this year’s slate of candidates for the Village Board. They have not bothered to develop a platform since they are running unopposed. Since the Trustee who gave the presentation is running for re-election along with the Mayor who applauded his hard work, Unify Piermont assumes their platform continues to be “we can do nothing”.
A “Do Nothing” platform is unacceptable. Therefore, Unify Piermont will not endorse any of the candidates for Mayor or Trustee.
Unify Piermont continues to hope that the political process will bring forth viable alternatives to the continuation of the taxing and spending policies of the past ten years. Hopefully, 2010 will see the return of opposition politics to Piermont. In the meantime, Unify Piermont will continue to monitor and report on the performance of the Village Board.
Unify Piermont is endorsing Judge Laura Weiss who has and continues to serve the best interests of the Village and all of its residents. Unify Piermont urges Piermont residents to vote for Laura Weiss and to withhold their votes for the Mayor and both Trustee candidates sending the message that “do nothing” is not an acceptable approach to the problems the Village faces.
This message was prepared by Unify Piermont which is dedicated to returning responsible, representative government to Piermont.
Unify Piermont is a group made up of Village residents from all areas of the village, and from all political parties. We need to create a local Village government that will address the problems created by the current and previous administrations.
