If Consolidation Adds Up, 2 Oneontas Should Become One

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Certainly, there are efficiencies that would be realized if the two Oneontas – the town and the city – became one, an estimated $250,000.
Expenses can be reduced, sure.  But the biggest benefit is on the revenue side, through a vehicle obscurely called “preemption.”
Preemption allows cities and counties in New York State – AND ONLY CITIES AND COUNTIES – to claim a portion of sales-tax revenues within its jurisdiction.
When Barry P. Warren, then director of SUNY’s Center for Economic & Community Development, studied a possible town-city merger in the mid-1990s, he concluded the combined municipality could claim an additional $2 million a year.
Today, that number has risen to $3 million.
Think about it. Southside Mall.  Walmart.  Lowe’s.  Home Depot.  The Holiday Inn and other Southside motels.  The restaurants along Route 23.  The supermarkets. Right now, they’re doing the two Oneontas no good, tax-revenue-wise.
The Three Musketeers had it right:  United, we do stand.

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This is more than theoretical all of a sudden.
Mayor Richard P. Miller, Jr., whose platform included renewing merger talks with the town, is following through.
Common Council Tuesday, Feb. 2, approved collaborating with the town in reviving and updating the findings of Barry Warren’s Greater Oneonta Task Force.
The Oneonta town board meets next Tuesday, Feb. 9, to take up the same matter.
In the first round of discussion, Mayor Miller emphasized that one of the biggest stumbling blocks to the merger – the possible loss of jobs – should be taken off the table for five years.
During that time, retirements and turnover would minimize the chance that any strong measures would have to be taken, and any could be cushioned to minimize harm to anyone.
This is as it should be.  Should individuals have to suffer harm for something that, if Warren’s initial conclusions bear out, would be a boon to all?
Certainly not.

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The Warren Report has lots of good reading.  Police, parks, economic development could all be more effectively managed in a larger entity.
Think about it historically.  When the City of Oneonta formed 101 years ago, it would take hours to walk from one end to another.  West Oneonta?  Forget it.  It might as well have been on a different planet. The automobile – and I-88 – changed all that:  Anyone can get from Emmons to West Oneonta in minutes.
The horse-and-buggy era had certain imperatives.  The space age has different ones for Planet Oneonta.  Let’s do what makes sense in the modern world.