The Stylus

Issue date: 2/3/10 Section: Campus Talk

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?

Continued...

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