Ellenville's Village Board of Trustees continues to surprise week after week. Just seven days after they approved a resolution that would have the public vote on whether or not to withdraw $1.1 million from the Mountain Money fund — $4.5 million the village holds in savings from the 1997 sale of Sam's Point to the Open Space Institute — they announce that they will likely vote to rescind the resolution at their next board meeting on Monday, March 23.

The reasoning, as stated by Mayor Jeff Kaplan, is because the deficit from the 2008-2009 budget won't be known until after May 31, the official end of the fiscal year. While discussing the matter, the mayor also said that the board hopes to assuage taxpayers' fears regarding more possible deficits in the village's future by having independent and state auditors come to the village to go over their books, a move that many had called for at the public hearing earlier this month.

Now that the deficit problem likely won't be solved by dipping into the community's nest egg, village officials will be trying to deal with the issue the old fashioned — and more fiscally responsible — way: taking out a loan and cutting expenses.

Yes, this will probably result in raised taxes. Yes, this will probably result in cutting hours of village employees, if it doesn't mean jobs being cut outright. Yes, this will hurt. But it won't hurt as much as using cash from the mountain fund to plug holes that have opened up over the course of several years' worth of bad budgeting practices.

We're glad to see that the elected officials in village government have listened to their constituents, and are taking steps to ensure that they govern at the will of the people. After all, that's what public hearings are for: to hear the public. It's rare that governments change their course of action when there is public dissent. Frankly, after eight years of a federal government whose favorite catch-phrase was "stay the course," it's almost surprising to see that public comment and criticism can have on any elected officials, be they in Washington, D.C., or right here in Ellenville. We applaud the village for truly trying to look out for what's in the best interests of the village and its citizenry. Naturally, it would've been ideal had these budget crises never arisen in the first place, but at this point it seems a moot point to be looking ever-backwards and trying to point fingers. What's done is done — now is the time to move forward.

Which brings us to the next point: now that the mountain fund will remain untouched for the time being, what should it be used for? Perhaps the village, in a formal way, should initiate a dialogue to come up with some ideas in how to use this money. These are tough times, and people need things to be turned around. Instead of having public hearings to decide on whether or not to spend the money on paying off the deficit, maybe we could have public hearings to gather ideas and suggestions on where we should spend the money. Instead of treating it as a "rainy-day" fund, which will forever tempt current and future political officials to cover mistakes, the mountain money should be treated as a unique opportunity to seed a new project for growing the community.

Ultimately, maybe that's the silver lining in this financial tale: by discovering how well a dialogue between the village government and its constituents can work, now we can all bring our voices together to find a way to build our community up and pave the way for the future.

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