As a longtime resident of Sleepy Hollow, I have followed the progress of the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act (VRA) lawsuit against the Town of Mt. Pleasant. Now that the parties have reached a settlement, I would like to suggest possible implications for residents and taxpayers of Sleepy Hollow. Under the settlement, a ward system will see (most of) Sleepy Hollow voters electing a council member directly to the Town Board, instead of the current at large voting system.
And as a taxpayer, former member of the Mt. Pleasant Industrial Development Agency and current trustee in Sleepy Hollow, I am familiar with the governance role of the Town and the services it provides to Sleepy Hollow residents. There is only one routine service provided directly to Sleepy Hollow: The Town collects real property taxes and remits them to the appropriate municipalities on behalf of the Village. The Town, for its efforts, receives about 0.5% of the total taxes received. So, if a Sleepy Hollow resident pays $20,000 in real property taxes (including the school portion), the Town gets about $100.
In essence, the Town Board really doesn’t represent residents of Sleepy Hollow in any meaningful way. Sleepy Hollow has its own governing body of which I am a member. And Sleepy Hollow provides the same public safety, public works and virtually all other municipal services to its residents that Mt. Pleasant provides to residents of the unincorporated areas of the Town. This will not change as a result of the VRA settlement. Sleepy Hollow residents who may have been underrepresented in Town government will not enjoy any meaningful additional representation immediately under the settlement.
So why has Mr. Imamura, a member of the Westchester County Board of Legislators and partner at Abrams Fensterman, decided to pursue a VRA lawsuit against the Town? It’s difficult to connect all of the dots. But it’s likely to enhance the chances of a long-term Democratic majority on the Town Board. This, of course, shouldn’t matter to Sleepy Hollow residents, since, as stated above, the Town has little impact on Sleepy Hollow residents.
Unfortunately, in time, the new Sleepy Hollow member of the Town Board is likely to do more than simply oversee the collection of real property taxes (a job already done by the Town’s Assessor and Receiver of Taxes). One can imagine a new Town councilperson seeking to have an impact on the lives of Sleepy Hollow residents that they were elected to represent—it’s what elected officials do. This would effectively add another layer of government for Sleepy Hollow taxpayers, an additional $30K+ annual salary for the new councilperson and would put upward pressure on property taxes. To offset this, the Town could take over services currently provided by the Village gradually reducing the need for Village government at all!
It’s difficult to say how things will play out. We are a test case. However, it may be time for the Village of Sleepy Hollow to secede from the Town and create its own new town. This would enable a new “Town of Sleepy Hollow” (which could be established as a coterminous town-village) and separate Town to more effectively align so each can address the needs of all residents in their respective jurisdictions and avoid further increases in property taxes for Sleepy Hollow residents.
In any event, it will be important to keep tabs on how this important development evolves as it could have a significant impact on the way residents of Sleepy Hollow are governed in the future.
Jim Husselbee
Sleepy Hollow
