County Watch
by G. L. Penney 

Is my face red? At the meeting of the county legislature on February 15, I again lectured the legislature on the need for tax relief. Later I found out that they had just come from a finance committee meeting in which they had decided that they could transfer a large accumulated surplus ($5.1 million) to the general fund to reduce real property taxes for the year 2006. I must applaud that decision. Now we can hope that the legislature has begun to come to grips with the difficult task ahead of them.

 That task, as I see it, is to eliminate those functions that are more appropriately performed by other community institutions. The first of these is land use control. By law, this is a function of town and village governments. Although a few of the towns have chosen not to enact zoning ordinances, that is and ought to be their choice. The second such function is economic development. In particular, the extension of water and sewer services has been well provided by local municipalities. Its adoption as a county-wide function is economically impossible. Yet the county has spent tax dollars planning to do this.

 A group of other functions that the county legislature ought to evaluate are those that were once, or are now performed more effectively by other organizations. These range from food pantries and mental health counseling to the promotion of tourism.

 I plan to keep you informed as to any further county progress.