Dear Editor:
Former Mayor Peter LaVilla made some statements in your letters department edition of October 22, 2000 that are inaccurate and misleading (if not outright lies), and I would like to comment on them.
In that edition he states he was against joining the North Hudson Regional Fire and Rescue because it would cost $2.3 million a year. This is an outright lie!
Originally, when it was brought up at a town meeting, it was you Mr. LaVilla, who was all for joining the NHRFR and it was only supposed to cost $250,000 a year. Your “it’s my way or it’s the highway, come the next election” way of running your administration intimidated the council members, without reading the contract, into voting with you to join the NHRFR. It wasn’t until after the two candidates you were backing lost their election in 1998, that you changed your tune and said you were against joining the NHRFR. By the way, all five council members that were on your ticket are now gone, but the town is stuck with the NHRFR contract from your administration.
He states he lowered taxes for three years in a row because of his “Frugal Spending.”
This is very misleading. While it’s true taxes were lowered for three years straight, how they were lowered tells another story. The previous administration left him with a $1.3 million surplus fund. This was left so if the town needed money for an emergency they could use it without having to pay interest and legal fees, thereby saving the town money later.
The first year’s taxes were cut because he used $800,000 from the surplus fund. The second year’s taxes were cut because the county and school board tax portions went down, of which he has no control over, and because he was bonding (borrowing) money instead of putting the items in the budget.
After the State Government Services Office turned his third budget down twice, which doesn’t turn budgets down too often, he did some creative bookkeeping to get his small tax cut for the third year.
I say “creative bookkeeping” because he had to bond out (borrow) almost $400,000 in “emergency appropriations” before the year was over, thus nullifying the small tax cut. This money was needed to pay town bills and the town payroll for about the last six weeks of that budget.
So in reality, he didn’t lower taxes for three years, he just ran a credit card administration. Mr. LaVilla probably figured he would be elected county executive before the bills came due. He wasn’t.
He also states that because of a property revaluation he was left with soaring taxes, and he didn’t complain about the previous administration.
About every seven years the county orders a property revaluation and it was due. Some went up, some went down. They didn’t soar through the roof as Mr. LaVilla states. What’s to complain about. This is routine business.
Because of your administration’s four years of fiscal irresponsibility and bad decisions, Guttenberg is now saddled with a bad contract and a big debt from all the money you borrowed, along with the interest and legal fees that go with it. This administration has a legitimate reason for blaming its financial problems on your administration.
Mr. LaVilla, you’re a very arrogant man, and Guttenberg is well rid of you and your shenanigans.
Harry T. Zollinger