Comments Section

Response to Sandra Tan’s July 24^th article, “Facts confuse debate on Williamsville’s fate”:

http://www.buffalonews.com/city/article80606.ece

 Prepared by: Victor Paquet

Some may be wondering why the Village of Williams Citizens Study Group and Ms. Tan arrived at different conclusions about how Village dissolution could affect taxes.   The difference between our analyses resides mostly in how water consumption costs were handled in the analyses. 

The Citizens Study group considered water to be a utility service (like gas and electric) and therefore did not include water consumption costs in the analysis. Water consumption costs are not included in our tax bill.  We instead get billed directly by the Erie County Water Authority. Ms. Tan’s analysis included a water consumption savings of $230 based on the difference in water consumption rate costs for the Town verses the Village. 

This savings estimate in my opinion is naïve because it assumes that if residents vote for dissolution, the Erie County Water Authority will automatically reduce our water rates by almost $2 per 1000 gallons usage, or that the entire town will share the burden of the necessary water infrastructure improvements needed within the Village.  There is no doubt that the Erie County Water Authority is going to require the Village to significantly upgrade its water supply system before any reduction in the water bills is realized.  Additionally, the current Town Supervisor and many of the Town Board members have made the following clear : 

If Village residents choose dissolution, the Town is not going to place the extra financial burden on the 95% of the taxpayers who live in Amherst outside of the Village and who will not have the opportunity to vote to absorb the Village (and its debt) into the Town. 

If the water is removed from Ms. Tan’s analysis, she would have concluded that dissolution would save less than $100 per year in property taxes and special district fees for a single family property assessed at 150k. 

The fact is that no one knows now how much, if any, savings in taxes, fees and utility services will be until a detailed study and comprehensive plan for dissolution is developed and agreed upon by the Town and the Village.  Could dissolution result in a modest increase in property taxes and fees?  It’s possible, but will depend on the Special District fees that are assigned to the Village.  Could it instead result in a decrease in property taxes and fees?  That’s possible too, but the analyses completed by the Citizens Study Group and Ms. Tan indicate that any decrease in property taxes and fees is likely to be very small.

Comment from the Buffalo News Story comment section recently.

"ABOLISH all villages...their time has come and gone...the one thing we don't need in WNY is more government but there will be waves of supporters for these wasteful governments and BEHIND the scenes is our leader in waste the CSEA Union....don't be fooled by their colorful propaganda leaflets. Look beyond the BS and help our children's future here in WNY by eliminating wasteful taxes and government."

What is interesting is that on face value it should make sense that dissolving a layer of government will save money.  Economy of scale and more efficient service are usually the given reasons.

Bigger is not always better. Often bigger means more structure, more rules, more benefits, more pay. When we compared the Town of Amherst to the Village of Williamsville this is exactly what we found.

The Town of Amherst:
1) Pays workers more;
2) Has a stronger union with more specific job titles and more grievances;
3) Has better benefits for workers;
4) Has less volunteers;
5) Has higher legacy costs due to retiree health care.

The Village of Williamsville:
1) Pays workers less;
2) Has a DPW Department instead of a Highway Department and with only one job title Village DPW workers have to perform multiple jobs (cut grass, plow, pick up garbage, fix equipment...all under the same job title without grieving;
3) Has significant hours of work performed by volunteers;
4) Has less benefits;
5) Has no retiree health care costs.

Ultimately what is going on in our study is:
1) Because we are small we pay more for sewers and water. They are the two big ticket items where it is possible to find savings in economy of scale and redistribution of cost over larger groups of people through consolidation and it should have been done years ago!!!
2) Where we save money over Amherst and at the same time have more (and perhaps better) services is because of the number of volunteers and the flexibility of the DPW Department.

It is now pretty clear that in dissolving we will not have the negotiating power to get the best deal on the things that cost us the most money - sewer and water. We will pay more for less service on the things that create quality of life.

Or to say it another way, the outcome of dissolving would be little tax savings to potentially paying more and a guarantee that we would get less service.

The Village of Williamsville INCLUDES the cost of sewers, sidewalks, lighting, water, etc...as well as all of the services the Town does not offer: committees, events, beautification, sidewalk plowing, etc in our village tax.  

The Town of Amherst tax DOES NOT INCLUDE: sewers, water, lighting, sidewalks, etc in the town tax.  Town residents pay for these services through SPECIAL DISTRICTS.

 IF THE VILLAGE OF WILLIAMSVILLE IS DISSOLVED WE GET SPECIAL DISTRICTS TOO!!! 

We cannot save $932 every year as Gaughan promises because we would have to continue to pay for sewers, water, sidewalks, lighting and the Village debt – through special districts if dissolved.