Dear Ridgewood Community:
As you may know, Ridgewood taxpayers have to pay for the cost of administering off-cycle elections, including the cost of poll workers, voting equipment, sample ballots, extra security, and so on. It adds up. By choosing to hold School and Village elections in April and May, we are incurring significant and avoidable Ridgewood election costs.
Fact #4: Off-cycle local elections cost Ridgewood taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars annually.
The Board of Ed election this past April cost our community $65K (up from the initial estimate of $42K when the April budget vote was reinstated). That equates to the cost of a high school sports program or the purchase of dozens of needed instruments for our music program. According to a recent news article, the last two Village Council elections cost an average of $49K. One Village election would pay for more than 100 trees through the Village’s Adopt-a-Tree program, which would help restore our badly depleted tree canopy. Or, that money could be spent on modernizing the Village’s website to make it more user-friendly. Off-cycle election costs could be cut from the budget or spent on other programs if all of our elections were consolidated to November.
Consolidating our elections will reduce Ridgewood election costs, make better use of taxpayer dollars, and improve voter turnout.
One Village, One Vote!
Over the coming weeks and months, we will be presenting data to the community about why it makes sense to move our elections to November. Be sure to sign up for emails at www.onevillageonevote.com in order to receive all of the latest information and learn how you can help support this change in our Village. We look forward to connecting with you.
Respectfully,
Bob Fuhrman
Matthew Lindenberg
Stacey Loscalzo
Deborah Steinbaum
Siobhan Crann Winograd