Here’s some local news you didn’t know about. When the Town of Rochester dropped their assessment nuclear bomb on its taxpayers this past spring, they roused reasonable disenfranchised people from all political camps to come together to effect measurable community change. While the Town Board cowered in their bunker bracing for the fallout, over 180 taxpayers unilaterally assembled at the Accord Firehouse not only to address their grievances – something not encouraged by The Borg – but to volunteer their time to educate their neighbors in understanding the assessment process, deal with the electronic vagaries the Town with its new GAR assessment system forced upon a them, and most of all, to provide hope: hope that there were options to forestall the nightmare of no longer being able to afford living in your own home and on your own property due to a looming inflated tax bill.

Through the support offered by this non-political united citizen forum, taxpayers were armed with the information they needed to fight against the inequities leveled on them. And the result? The GAR artificially inflated assessments close to a total of $31.7 million were written off! Poof! Gone! How the misers must have cried!

Many lessons have been learned during this process and make no mistake, the Town Board may think this radioactive matter has cleared up and blown over, but taxpayers are here to remind them that such is not the case. The bottom line is this: the powers that be want nothing more than for its citizens to dig in their heels and take stake in two divergent political sides so that all their energies are spent fighting each other rather than uniting to fight the real enemy: wonton and reckless government. It’s time for a change in the Town of Rochester, and I challenge you: don’t be afraid to vote Republican in this upcoming election to effect real measurable change.

Pam Robinson

Kerhonkson