To the Editor:
Earlier this year our Yates County Legislators did not actively support the Finger Lakes Boating Museum’s (FLBM) request for a small portion of the still abandoned Penn Yan Marine site. Our loss is now Geneva‘s gain.
For Yates County’s tax burden to be minimized, jobs to be created, restaurants to be full, hotels to have guests and for storefronts on Main Street to have tenants, our County Legislators must come to view economic development and tourism ventures as priorities worthy of support.
Now FLBM will reside in Geneva with our loss being their gain, along with the thousands of visitors per year it will draw.
So where do we go now? Let me give you some benchmarking (comparisons):
According to Openbook New York, the average NYS county gets 63% more sales tax revenue per resident than Yates County. And the average Finger Lakes county gets 24% more. We really need to increase our focus on economic development/ tourism here in Yates County to increase sales tax revenue which in turn decreases tax burden on you the taxpayer.
You can help make that happen by electing new blood into the county legislature.
Mark Morris for
Dale Lane, Patrick Galvin, Dennis Race,
Mary St George and Stephen D’Amico
Penn Yan
Editor’s note: This letter was submitted by one CAST candidate, but included the other’s names. Stephen D’Amico’s name will not appear on the Nov. 3 ballot.
