Colchester Adopts Drilling Resolution
Colchester: Cole Clove Brook emptying into the Pepacton Reservoir.
From the Walton Reporter (no website), December 23, 2009.
DOWNSVILLE – The Colchester Town Council has passed a resolution in support of natural gas development in the town, and the town supervisor says he believes drilling fo natural gas in the Marcellus shale formation that extends through Delaware County will be critical to the economic well being of the county, as well as to that of the town.
Colchester Supervisor Robert Homovich, who has succeeded the late John Meredith as county budget director, said the town council sees natural gas development as an “economic development” opportunity that the town and county can’t afford to let slip away, despite the objections of some residents who claim the drilling method, hydrofracturing, will contaminate the water table. He said the potential tax revenue the county will receive is one of three options it has to balance its budget in the coming years, “and I don’t like the other two.”
The other two options to gas development, Homovich said, “are massive tax hikes or massive lay-offs.”
Homovich said the county has been able to keep the annual tax increases low during the present economic downturn, because of reserved fund balances, which have been used to supplement lost revenues. He said the county’s sales tax revenue has been way below anticipated levels for the past couple of years and he doesn’t expect to see it rebound by year’s end or in the coming year.
He said he believes the county can get through the next two years without having to have a significant tax increase or a wholesale lay-off of employees, unless the state’s financial condition worsens and it imposes further on the state’s smaller municipalities to balance its budget.
“The school districts have already been told they’re taking a mid-year hit in their state aid and the state isn’t showing any signs of backing off its social commitments,” Homovich said. “So, we’ve still got to pay for all the obligations the state has mandated, and hopefully they won’t pile any more on or cut payments to the municipalities any further.”
Homovich said he thinks county residents had better look at gas development as a benefit, rather than a detriment, because, at this time, it appears to be the single route the county has that won’t increase the financial woes of county residents or decrease the services the county can offer.
“I wish this wasn’t the only way out of the trouble we’re finding ourselves in,” Homovich said, “but, I expect that if we don’t do something, we’re going to see a double digit increase in property taxes at the county level or we’re going to have to cut a whole lot of jobs,” Homovich said.
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