Yorktown Would Be Wise to Invest in and Used Clean Energy Sources
Opinion Advocates for ideas and draws conclusions based on the author/producer’s interpretation of facts and data.
At the recent Yorktown Town Board meeting to present the 2024 budget, where accolades were offered to many, there was, as they say, a very large elephant in the room that inexplicably went unmentioned.
The first clue comes from the more than $6 million added to our fund balance from the county sales tax. That money is providing desperately needed funds for our infrastructure and is allowing us to balance our town budget without raising our town taxes. It certainly was wise for the Town Board to budget conservatively given the global pandemic, but why did actual revenues come in way above expectations? Sales tax revenues have gone up because the economy is humming, people have been spending again, going out to restaurants, buying clothes, doing holiday shopping, etc.
The second and final clue is the more than $2 million in federal funds also added to our fund balance. The missing accolade should have gone to our president! Thank you, Joe Biden, for your skillful negotiation of the bipartisan infrastructure bill and the passage of a series of measures that have not only prevented the recession everyone predicted, (think if every town would have had to lay off town employees and/or raise town taxes), but have the economy growing at a strong rate.
Federal incentives in clean energy are not only bringing millions of jobs back to the U.S., they will also allow towns to invest in clean energy to save money. While critics might argue that we can’t afford to subsidize the purchase of solar panels, heat pumps and electric cars, the fact is that private companies’ investments have already dwarfed the federal outlay, which is stimulating the economy and increasing our tax revenues. The federal incentives are actually less than the subsidies that we give to oil and gas companies (which need to be phased out).
I hope that the Yorktown Town Board will accept its responsibility to reduce its use of fossil fuel to help control the effects of global warming that we are already experiencing in our town and take advantage of clean energy to increase revenues and reduce expenses.
Rather that railing against the rise in electric rates they should look to themselves: When you own or lease solar panels to make electricity to operate, heat and cool buildings and power town vehicles, you lock in the cost of energy for decades!
Larry Kilian
Yorktown Heights
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