Editor, The Spotlight:
The cost of a new home in the town of Bethlehem is around $350,000. If you manage 20 percent down and secure a 30-year mortgage your payment would be around $1,200 per month. Your property taxes would be around $900 per month. Your mortgage payments would be fixed but based on proposed increases and past trends in about three years your property tax payments would exceed your mortgage. And if you pay the mortgage off you still never really own the property you simply rent it from the municipalities. And they raise the rent every single year!
Is it any wonder why the majority of new construction in the town is luxury apartments? People paying $1,500 – $2,000 a month in rent can afford a mortgage. It’s the taxes they can’t or won’t handle.
This town has lost its fiscal way and changes need to be made. I don’t know if Jeremy Martelle is the answer to the financial problems of the town but he may be a good place to start. He would come to the Town Board from the private sector, also known as “the real world.” Through his career as a senior aviation planner he has extensive experience in long term budgeting on large projects. If elected he would be in the minority and if board members vote party lines he may not have much of a voice to start but I think his presence would be felt and his new perspective contagious. I hope you consider Jeremy Martelle for the open town board seat.
Gary Barkman
Glenmont