Sue

Thank you for your insight. I do believe that the County Legislature puts their own interests above what’s best for the County. I don’t think the County residents will ever have the opportunity to vote on term limits or if we want to reduce the number of legislators. If there is another way to get these things on the ballot without the legislators approval then maybe we might get the opportunity to vote on it, but if it’s strictly up to the legislators to make that decision then no…it will never happen. We had so many unopposed races during the last election and I know of one that was set up that way on purpose so they could avoid a primary vote, so that left the race unopposed. The decision was made and the voters were totally excluded from the decision. I imagine this happens more than we realize, I guess that’s politics….

True, however, the reduction of legislators would have added more money to the county budget.

Chemung county has had a significant reduction in population over the years, the last census showed that. We no longer need 15 legislators due to this shift in population, however, the legislators did not make the change required to reduce the number of legislators. We still have 15 legislators, paying their salaries and full health benefits when we don’t need 15 and they know this…this could save us the tax payer thousands of dollars, but they care more about themselves. Also, the State initiated a gas tax holiday to help reduce the cost per gallon and let the individual counties to decide if they would do the same…the legislators said the county needs the money and voted to NOT give us the county gas tax holiday. Maybe they would have the money if they reduced the number of legislators…but they come first…we need to vote in new legislators because the ones we have are not putting their constituents first. Please listen to Chris Moss podcast through the below link titled County Redistricting…it’s a real eye opener… https://anchor.fm/chrismoss/episodes/County-Redistricting-e1eh9r8