NEWS
Will Dissolution Sink Galassos Re-election
With the Village of Middleburgh dissolution vote still in mind, which went down in flames 71-344 last February, it begs the question: will the defeat of former Mayor Gary Hayes' unpopular dissolution petition in Middleburgh have any effect on Cobleskill Mayor Mark Galasso's bid for reelection in his municipality?
Mr. Galasso's defining position during his time in elected office, as both Village Trustee and Mayor, has been to push for the dissolution or consolidation of his municipality into either the town's government apparatus or the [unlikely] creation of a City of Cobleskill, which in New York is as likely as a Republican winning a single electoral vote: not going to happen.Which brings us to this fall's Mayoral election between Mr. Galasso and Mrs. Linda Holmes, who serves as a Village Trustee and has been an outspoken opponent of Mr. Galasso's efforts, in light of both Middleburgh's overwhelming vote against Mr. Hayes petition and acknowledgment that dissolution or consolidation would lead to few savings or reduction in Cobleskill's public workforce (Cobleskill Times Journal: May 7th, 2013 edition).
It goes without saying Mr. Galasso's signature issue has taken a significant blow because (a.) his own findings are that dissolution will have little to no savings for Cobleskill taxpayers, (b.) the creation of a city government is impossible and (c.) a smaller municipality just 10 miles away saw over 80% of their citizenry vote against the exact same proposal, due to pesky facts that costs would just be shifted to town government and instead of two moderate tax bills they would receive one giant collection in the mail.
What effect will this have on November's election? Only time and the respective campaigns will tell... What say you?