URGENT: The State is considering changes to village incorporation law that would give Supervisor Feiner *more* power.

Dear Edgemont Neighbors,

In what has become an annual tradition, the Town and its anti-incorporation allies are once again trying to push through last-minute changes to New York’s Village Law, to prevent us from having the opportunity to decide for ourselves how we will be governed. We’ve survived past attempts because so many of you contacted our legislative representatives—and we need Edgemont to act in full force again, right away. (Links to contact our representative Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie are here and at the bottom of this email, including sample language.)

First, it’s important to understand that the purpose of the Village Law is to protect smaller areas of a large town that do not have the voting power to protect themselves in the political process. Edgemont is a perfect example: it comprises only 8 percent of the vote in Greenburgh, one of the largest towns in the entire state.  Greenburgh’s borders were drawn over 200 years ago and have no relevance to our lives today. Because Edgemont happens to fall within those antiquated boundaries, we have zero control today over important issues such as how land is used in our community — which is instead decided by Town officials we have no effective power to elect or remove. If the Town is comfortable with a derelict Central Avenue (Edgemont’s “Main Street”), long pockmarked by abandoned properties, there is nothing we can do about it but complain and be ignored.  And when the Town’s land use negligence and malfeasance results in massive litigation settlements, we — and not the villages — pay the bill through higher taxes, even though we had no choice in the matter. 

The Village Law gives unrepresented communities like ours the right to form our own municipality within the Town, with significantly more control over our local affairs. Greenburgh already contains six villages, all of which operate efficiently with lower tax bases than Edgemont.  

Incorporation is accomplished through a simple up-or-down vote of the people who live within the boundaries of the proposed village. This is a classic example of the fundamental American principle that government is by the consent of the governed. We get to decide whether to govern ourselves or remain subject to the Town’s whims. 

This long-established right is also an important check on the Town’s power. If we did not have the ability to incorporate, the Town would have no reason to pay attention to us at all.  It’s not an accident that the roads get fixed whenever we are getting ready to file a petition.

The changes that are under consideration would remove these protections, and leave us entirely at the Town’s mercy. They include a new requirement of obtaining petition signatures from people outside our community before we could even ask to hold a vote — a requirement that makes absolutely no sense because the very purpose of the Village Law is to protect us against the “tyranny of the majority.” Requiring us to get permission from the majority defeats the entire purpose of the law. Instead of government by the consent of the governed, it would be government by the consent of those who live near the governed.

The discussed changes also include a new requirement of including financial impact statements - which would only create grounds for further litigation and delay. While a financial impact statement might seem like a good idea in the abstract, it is a wolf in sheep’s clothing. The Town would simply claim that whatever statement we provide, no matter how detailed, is insufficient, and use that as an excuse to reject our petition. And with no existing standards for this brand-new requirement, we would have no way to know in advance whether our financial statement is legally sufficient.

We’ve provided numerous financial statements, most recently just last month on the viability of the Village of Edgemont and the remaining unincorporated area (click here for that information). Note that even if Edgemont incorporates as Greenburgh’s seventh village, the remaining unincorporated area would still have some 35,000 people in it. This population, area, and tax base are roughly the size of Tarrytown, Dobbs Ferry, Ardsley, and Hastings combined. The suggestion that those areas would be “devastated” by Edgemont’s incorporation, as the Town likes to pretend, is absurd. The Town would simply have to adjust how it operates - which it doesn’t want to do, because it’s easier to have complete, unchecked power.  

Given his well-established history of using the full power of his office to thwart an Edgemont vote, it should be obvious to anyone that no financial impact statement would ever be sufficient in Supervisor Feiner’s eyes.  The considered change just hands him another excuse to keep us hostage. 

Please let our elected officials know that you oppose these efforts to stifle our rights. You can send letters to Senate Majority Leader Andrea Stewart-Cousins (link here for an email with sample language) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie (link here with sample language), to ask them not to side with Paul Feiner by adding new incorporation requirements that increase the power of entrenched politicians and remove our only protection in the political process. Your calls and emails have made all the difference in past years.

Please click here to send emails to Senator Leader Stewart-Cousins (sample language is included) and Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie.

Thank you for all your help, and for reaching out to your neighbors and asking them to contact our legislature as well.

-The EIC