Dissolving Brockport's future?

Students at Brockport could be amidst the confusion if the Brockport Tax Cutters succeed in making the Village of Brockport, the Town of Sweden. If the village is taken over by the town of Sweden, the face of what we know as Brockport will drastically change. The result could include the end of the Brockport Police Department. In a college town, a village police force is needed to keep the peace. The Monroe County Sheriff's Office do not know Brockport as well as our police. Do we want them arresting from afar?Even though Brockport Police have received a lot of criticism, students living off campus and Brockport residents need the services they provide. University Police have no jurisdiction over the village area. When the shooting at Lakeside Hospital occurred a year ago, a victim who was shot, Audra Dillon, drove to the Brockport Police Station on Clinton Street for help. Where would she be if she didn't have them to turn to? What would she have done with no one to help her in a moment of need?

Students need a local police force to oversee their own safety. Yes, it's inconvenient when trying to throw a party, but without Brockport Police, we would have less public safety. They handled the huge sum of 15,490 calls for service in 2009 alone. If those calls were made to the Monroe County Sheriff's Office we're sure not as many would be paid attention to. Let's not stretch our resources thin.

While raising the taxes to a higher rate sounds unappealing to most, there should be other options for Brockport residents. Dissolving the village may not be as necessary as Brockport Tax Cutters wants others to assume.

And although the name of Brockport might be able to stay, how would you like it if we were called The College at Sweden? Our identity and school pride would undergo an overhaul. It could just get more confusing if they combined names to Brockport-Sweden.

Even though we love our Brockport name, making a fuss about changing it isn't worth the financial strain the village may have to go through. The village would have to raise property taxes by 18 percent for the next five years in order to get the budget back on track. This doesn't mean they're considering it, but something needs to be done, whether it means preventing these extravagant tax hikes or letting the residents (literally) pay the price for keeping Brockport's name.

If dealing with money has become this big of a problem, why are the same people handling it? It seems obvious that the way things have been done is not efficient, so let's get some fresh faces in charge of the finances, shall we?

Yes, the police department is a huge part of the village's budget ($1.1 million in salaries, holiday and overtime pay out of a $5.4 million budget), but a decision should not immediately revert to getting rid of it completely. Instead, maybe pay cuts are in order. Most universities have a separate village police department to help keep things under wraps anyway, so why should we be any different?

Who knows what will happen - we just know Brock the Sweden doesn't have that same special ring to it. And it just wouldn't be the same if we were known as the Sweden Golden Eagles. Let's make the right choice in dealing with the deficit, and not get caught up in a political mess.

We all know how landlords can be biased when they vie to cut taxes on their own property. One of its members said four of the five orignators of Brockport Tax Cutters are actually landlords. Suspicious?

A move to dissolve Brockport would get rid of one layer of government, but in doing so, only to create new ones. It would just be the Town of Sweden, and in turn they would have to have districts to help alleviate debt. Even though some residents believe this option to dissolve the village will curb debt, it will not get rid of it in the long run.

There needs to be a reasonable solution to Brockport's fiscal problems. It would be horrible to see historic Brockport - our part-time home during the school year - be turned into something else just because those in power in the village have some drama to work out amongst themselves