Tough Times Ahead Locally

This may come as a shock to all of you but the inauguration of Barack Obama will have almost no impact on our daily lives. Sure, it’s great to see a quarterback change in Washington but it will take more than charisma and speechmaking to make a dent in the problems facing Americans on so many levels. The foremost obstacle is, of course, the economy. The U.S. economy is in absolute free fall and thousands of Americans are losing their homes and jobs daily.
What has been somewhat overlooked in the run-up to the inauguration has been the local aspect of all this. For some time we have been focusing on the headlines and what felt like other people’s problems. Bank failures and mortgage meltdowns followed by bold government intervention were unnerving but didn’t feel real for a long time. Well, they do now. Just look around you here in the Hudson Valley. Businesses are closing left and right, construction and real estate activity have ground to a halt putting many people out of work. Banks, after years of making questionable loans, have virtually closed the lending window now that the horse is over the horizon.
At the State level, Gov. David Paterson has made it clear the budget will have to be slashed dramatically and many services curtailed or eliminated. That means many agencies will have to do more with less and municipalities will be getting less from the State. The simple explanation is the foundering economy generates less tax revenues and unless we raise taxes, that’s all she wrote. But even the looniest of lefties in Albany realize you can’t raise taxes in a cratering economy.
Hyde Park is a good example of how things are playing out across the area. Tax revenue is down substantially because the real estate market has all but ceased to exist along with all those sales and mortgage taxes. Businesses are dropping like flies and the few that actually open seem to close in a few months. There’s more economic activity in Fallujah than Route 9 these days. The fact that the Town actually raised taxes in the face of all this economic pain is one of the reasons we see so many For Sale signs around town. Taxes are driving people up the wall and out of town.
Locally, tensions appear to be intensifying on what was four years ago a unified, congenial Town Board. In the last weeks skirmishes have broken out over the reappointment of the town engineer and a proposed cell tower. Much of the angst seems focused on Supervisor Pompey Delafield.
This brings me to the political scuttlebutt in Hyde Park; given this is an election year. I hear more than a few democrats are increasingly frustrated with Mr. Delafield and want to nominate someone else this year. The common complaint is he hasn’t really accomplished anything of substance and just keeps pushing legislatives proposals around his plate. The failure of the St. Andrews project and the police facility hasn’t helped staunch the political bleeding although FDR himself wasn’t going to get the St. Andrews dog to hunt. Board member Valerie Hale is said not to be seeking a second term, opening the door for the woman who almost beat her, Sue Serino. Bob Linville is rumored to be mulling retirement. Independent turned democrat Rich Perkins is making some friends and noise for Supervisor and freshman Board member Hannah Black looks vulnerable to a decent republican candidate. Then again, that would require the presence of an organized republican party in Hyde Park. If you find one, drop me a note.