$16,512. That is the per capita income, based on the 2000 census, for every man, woman and child that lives in the Town of Wawarsing.

$151,048. That is the total possible cost for paying Wawarsing's town supervisor and his board as well as supplying them with health insurance for 2008.

This week, the Ellenville Journal discovered that some of Wawarsing's numbers just didn't add up. We discovered that a town that has a recent reputation for poverty and job loss is also home to the highest paid town officials in the county. The disparity between the board's compulsive raises seven out of the last eight years and the area's economic fortunes is impossible to reconcile. Both parties have approved the raises, sticking their hands in the till as they stuck their heads in the sand as the town lost entire industries.

What the raises seem to represent is the board's disconnect from the plight of Wawarsing's working families; due to a lack of compassion and leadership at a time when local residents need both desperately. One needs to look no further than last week when the outgoing town supervisor warned against a Department of Social Services office in Ellenville for fear of welcoming poor citizens to our community, looking for a handout and eating up our taxes. That talk, when weighed against this week's revelations, can only be viewed as hypocritical.

But the main problem facing our community is that our elected officials see themselves as employees, not public servants and certainly not leaders. They feel entitled to their salary and their benefits and they are in the unique position to increase them at will. Rather than increasing their salary they should have at least refused the temptation to raise it as often as they have. As a gesture of solidarity with the people they represent they could have lowered their salary and forgone their health benefits, appreciating the choice they had that few in our area possess.

Numbers are hard to take. People confronted by them often try to find the side door to an explanation, some word or phrase that will lessen their impact. People don't like numbers because they tell a story that's hard to refute. That said, people often do things in darkness they would never do in the plain light of day. Now that these figures are available for all to see, the question becomes what will Wawarsing's town council members do to justify salaries so dramatically out of step with the community they serve.

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