To the Editor:
In your article on village elections and its now perilous finances, “Village elections set for March 19,” (Feb. 14 - 20), Mayor Ed Fare shirks responsibility for the village’s potentially disastrous fiscal condition, blaming Ed Cahill, saying, incorrectly, that the former mayor cut street maintenance to keep money in reserves, presumably to please Moody’s Investor Service.
Let’s look at the facts. Fare joined Cahill’s administration in 2004 and became mayor in 2011. The Herald reported then that Fare had nothing but praise for Cahill’s fiscal conservatism and for his keeping tax increases to a minimum; indeed, a tax freeze was one of Fare’s campaign promises. Cahill led the way on improving village roads, which Fare said he and the board supported and lauded.
Cahill, who became mayor in 1999, and Jim Darcy before him, took the village’s critical fund balance seriously and acted with financial prudence. In the Herald’s Year in Review for 2001, the village’s second Moody’s upgrade in two years was highlighted, reporting that taxpayers “stand to save thousands of dollars.”