EDMESTON _ Otsego County's fiscal woes dominated discussion Monday night when the District 10 candidates for the county board met in a forum at Pathfinder Village in Edmeston.
In that race, Democrat Keith Carpenter of Edmeston is challenging incumbent Republican Rep. Betty Anne Schwerd of Burlington.
At the start of Monday's forum, which was sponsored by the League of Women Voters of the Cooperstown Area, Schwerd said she had just come from a seven-hour session working on the proposed 2010 budget.
Much more needs to be done to avoid a large tax hike, she said.
``We need to cut $5 million out of this budget,'' said Schwerd, who added that taxes are already too high.
In Friday's edition of The Daily Star, a list of property owners who are delinquent on their taxes was published, she said.
That list is 21 percent longer than last year because people are already having a hard time paying taxes, she said.
Schwerd said the county needs to look at letting private entities take over some county services because the county is inefficient.
``When the county gets involved, service goes down,'' she said.
Asked why that is, Schwerd said county workers have little incentive to excel.
``CSEA workers are not rewarded for going above and beyond,'' she said, adding that the county does not give merit raises.
Some county services, such as keeping roads in good shape, are essential, but others, such as mental-health services, are less so, Schwerd said. ``Crazy people are going to be crazy no matter what you do.''
Even essential services may be delivered more cheaply if departments are consolidated and streamlined, said Schwerd, who is a member of the county's Administration Committee and chairs the Intergovernmental Affairs Committee.
Carpenter, a former Edmeston town supervisor and a board member of Edmeston Central School, said ``taxes never went up more than 2 percent'' on budgets he has worked on.
He agreed with Schwerd that the county should strive to cut costs, but also said he could not promise that taxes will never rise.
Carpenter said he is running to bring people together, and he pledged to hold regular meetings with residents of the four towns in the district: Plainfield, Edmeston, Burlington and Exeter.
If elected, Carpenter said he would push to make sure the county and its towns are ready for pending natural gas-drilling operations.
``I'm pro-drilling, as long as we're guaranteed that our water quality will be the same,'' he said.
He also mentioned that the town of Lebanon in Madison County is paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to repair roads that have been damaged by the heavy truck traffic that comes with a drilling operation.
In response to a question from the audience about the state's STAR tax-reduction program, both candidates said they had not contacted state officials about it.
Schwerd said that residents downstate, where many rent, are not as concerned about property taxes as upstate residents.
Carpenter said the STAR program should have been confined to senior citizens and not expanded to reduce the taxes of others.
``It's become something it was never meant to be,'' he said.
Monday's forum was moderated by Joyce Hickling, of Edmeston, of the League of Women Voters of the Cooperstown Area.
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