To the Editor:

I clicked on the link to my Berne tax bill on Jan. 11 and was shocked to find a tax rate increase from the approved 37 percent to nearly 69 percent [“‘Blindsided’: Berne board and citizens ponder 68% tax hike,” The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 15, 2025]. Some residents struggled at last year’s rate!

Did the budget really increase from $2.661 million in 2025 to $4.143 million in 2026? I understand big raises buy employee loyalty to the board, but what does a whopping $1.4 million increase buy the residents?  

I don’t see any real attempt to control town spending. I lived through years of 0-percent contracts with no raise as a public servant. What are we doing paying everyone big raises? Each raise for each employee equals the tax hike to multiple properties.

And are we paying Deputy Supervisor Tom Doolin more than the actual town board members to occasionally conduct a meeting? Is he really there for continuity of the “institutional knowledge” gained while he helped crash town finances; violate the First Amendment; and drive objective, reasonable Republicans off the board?

 He’s the guy who took absolute delight in trying to publicly humiliate me at the November meeting because I dared to write emails to criticize the budget process that created this budget mess. That appears to be a violation of New York and federal civil rights laws. He voted for his own inflated salary for an unnecessary position! Kick this guy to the curb and put the equivalent of about 10 property tax hikes back in the town fund.

I’ve been working with the town since 1988 in various volunteer positions and guided major building projects through the process from conception to completion. I was a library trustee for a term and a town board member for four budget cycles. I understand the town budget process. 

I am on a first-name basis with people at the regional office of the State Comptroller. I requested an audit of the Berne budget process that identified numerous procedural problems when I was on the board.  I’ve seen the town engage in every bad budgeting practice in the Office of the State Comptroller guidance. I tried to stop insanity while under multiple bogus town investigations.

Kevin Crosier has vast experience with many town budgets and between us we have decades of town budget and town hall experience. We both have a very deep connection to this town. My ancestry goes back beyond the Dietz Massacre. 

We both, as deeply committed residents, offered repeatedly to help Joe Geibelhaus and Melanie laCour with the budget process. The Berne budget is a daunting task. We knew people new to the town and new to the task would have trouble no matter how credentialed, sophisticated, or superior they thought they were. They ignored us.

What Joe, Melanie, and Tom Doolin don’t understand is they own this failed budget. As the voting majority, they created this mess. But they are blaming Dennis Palow for the terrible final budget. The final budget is not the supervisor’s budget. Joe is wrong. [“Town tax hike of 69% surprises new Berne supervisor who wants comptroller to investigate,” The Altamont Enterprise, Jan. 13, 2026]

The supervisor only makes the budget decisions while he gathers estimates together and organizes them into the tentative budget format considering his vision for the town. Once that tentative budget is received by the town clerk, she presents it to the board. At that point, every decision regarding that budget and its process is a board decision and the supervisor has no more authority than the other board members.  

Joe G. said the supervisor [Dennis Palow] directed the town clerk not to post the budget for transparency during the process. Again, he doesn’t understand the supervisor’s role. She must respect the decisions the board makes by vote; the supervisor cannot tell her what to do.

Checks and balances are built in. They are independently elected officials with specifically defined duties and responsibilities. 

I pointed out early in the process that it was illegal for Joe to be the budget officer as a town board member. He was technically overseeing his own role in the budget process. He clearly presented himself as the budget officer.

Supervisor Palow publicly commended his accomplishments in formulating the tentative budget [“Giebelhaus ‘rights the ship,’ increasing taxes by 38%,” The Altamont Enterprise, Oct. 30, 2025]. But now it’s Dennis Palow’s budget; it’s all his fault? See NY GML Article 18, conflicts of interest and NY TWN Article 8 § 103 – 106 for all the potential violations ….

I think when the “approved budget” was transmitted to the county to process the bills, their accountant checked it and said “Hey this rate is wrong.” ….  I think legally both the clerk and the supervisor were responsible to advise the board a new document needed approval for posting (with an explanation). 

You just divide the actual value of all the taxable property in town by 1000 and multiply that by the proposed $6.40 rate. I don’t believe anyone checked at the tentative stage or the preliminary stage. It wasn’t checked before the approval making it the final budget. Wouldn’t that be maladministration that threatens the financial security of Berne residents?

So, the reason this budget failed, as far as I can tell, is a disrespect for the laws, processes, transparency, and residents combined with the fact that nobody ever bothered to check a simple, two-step calculation at any point in the process!  

I think the fact that it is so easy to link the steps in this process to all these potential violations of various laws should be food for thought, not a reason for arrests or citations. The town board is there to serve the immediate needs of the people, that is this year.

This budget makes it easier to “right the ship” and run the town, but at the threat of the loss of home ownership and financial stability of our more vulnerable residents. The ship may not have been listing, but it was maneuvered right into the rocks.

Joel Willsey

Berne