Town reverses their position on shared services -- the primary financial concern about incorporation
In his October 28 message to residents about Greenburgh’s 2023 budget, Town Supervisor Paul Feiner mentioned Edgemont’s new petition to incorporate and that, if it’s successful, the Town’s unincorporated area budget will be “hard hit.”
In the very next paragraph, Mr. Feiner states that the Town should engage in shared services with Greenburgh’s villages with the goal of lowering costs for all.
Finally, in a separate e-mail dated October 29 to certain Edgemont residents, Mr. Feiner stated that he plans to hire a finance professional who, among other duties, would help during the transition should Edgemont incorporate. Specifically, he said, “If Edgemont does incorporate [he] will need more help during the transition since there will be significant impacts to residents of Greenburgh and we need to make sure that all financial arrangements are reviewed.”
Taken together, Mr. Feiner seems to be accepting the reality that, post incorporation, the Town would benefit from a partnership with Edgemont. That stands in stark contrast to his heretofore unwillingness to even acknowledge that possibility, which was the primary reason Town’s unincorporated area would be “hard hit”.
Here at the EIC, we’ve always supported the benefits of village-town shared services, which are widespread:
Unincorporated Greenburgh would enjoy significant revenue from Edgemont (and from the existing villages, if they choose to follow Edgemont’s lead);
Edgemont would continue to receive major services from Greenburgh, which would ease our transition to villagehood; and
The existing villages could piggyback on Edgemont’s arrangements, which would create even more scale and result in lower costs for all Town residents.
Although his new statements discredit some of his previous assertions that shared services would never work, we nonetheless applaud Mr. Feiner for coming around on this matter. We hope he and his new hire will sit down with the EIC to discuss potential partnerships (just as Westchester County and numerous village officials have done over the past several years).
Best, The EIC
