The Shandaken town board voted on November 8 to accept a town budget with the tax increase reduced from the preliminary figure of 7.4 percent to a final hike of 5.45 percent, still higher than the state’s two percent tax cap.
The party faithful say last week’s election drubbing had nothing to do with it.
When the final absentee ballots were opened eight days after the election, the veteran Republican had defeated opponent Michael MacIsaac by just six votes. In another Saugerties legislative district, Joe Maloney widened his victory over incumbent Chris Allen.
Faso said two provisions of the bill would be particularly bad for New York State’s economy: the removal of deductions for state income taxes and limits on deductions for local property taxes.
“I’ve been watching my taxes go up every year — I have a chart. It just doesn’t stop.”
The only contested election in Woodstock did not yield much suspense on November 7.
With 99 absentee ballots sitting in the hopper on the day after the 2017 election, and more potentially to come in before they get opened beginning Wednesday, November 15, only two votes separated Hurley town supervisor candidates Republican/Conservative/ Independence party choice John Perry (1104) and Democrat/Green/ Working Families hopeful Tracy Kellogg (1102).
A new lot will be constructed next year as part of a new trail. But there’s some question about whether to allow parking along the road in the meantime.
Can a candidate who lost both Democratic and Republican primaries win the general election against the two opponents who defeated him? That possibility remains for former county Democratic Party chair and incumbent county legislator John Parete of Boiceville, who holds a slim 20-vote lead over Democratic challenger Kathy Nolan in the 22nd district, which includes Shandaken, Olive, Denning and Hardenburgh, with at least 217 absentee ballots still to count.
The blowout by Democrats in the ward races was offset by a single Republican victory in the County Legislature’s District 7, where Democrat-turned-Republican Brian Woltman defeated freshman Democratic lawmaker Jennifer Schwartz Berky.