Noting, “… our sustainability predicament remains,” Medina Mayor Andrew Meier said he will work with leaders in the Towns of Shelby and Ridgeway to reduce taxes in the wake of the defeat of dissolution January 20.
Voters in the village rejected dissolving their government by a near 2:1 margin – 949 no to 527 yes. Those against said they feared losing their village services.
“The people like their services,” Ridgeway Town Council Member David Stalker told the media. “They like their police, fire and ambulance services.”
Ridgeway Supervisor Brian Napoli said, “There was a collective sigh of relief,” when vote results were announced.
The Village of Medina with 6,000 residents, sits within two towns: Ridgeway and Shelby, and now leaders of all three municipalities say they should sit down together and discuss shared services as the future of tax reduction. They have discussed consolidation in the past.
Mayor Meier, who was a proponent of dissolution, said the village continues to face a decreasing tax base and population and increasing costs, issues that remain even though dissolution has been shot down.
Combined taxes for village residents are among the highest in the state – $54/$1,000 – including a village tax rate of $16.44. Dissolution was expected to have cut about $6/$1,000 from the village rate, but residents in the Town of Ridgeway would have seen their taxes nearly double.
