While I appreciated most of the article by VTDigger about the Essex Town-Village split, it did the community (and the truth) a disservice by not adding any context with Bruce Post’s quote:
“Only a small segment of the town, those who lived in the village, were able to vote on it. I found that incredibly undemocratic.”
This was shamelessly playing the victim card from the bottom of the deck.
The Town Outside the Village (TOV) had a financial interest in the status quo, when the Village was part of the Town, since Village residents were paying all the taxes for many services in the Village, and also their share of the costs for the same services in the TOV. Many TOV residents realized the inequity had to be addressed, but not enough. Multiple votes on merger/separation failed. The democratically elected state Legislature finally ruled that the Village could no longer be held hostage by the TOV as a piggy bank and could vote on separation without the residents of the TOV.
Carl Wermer
City of Essex Junction
