N ow that the 2009 budget for the Town of Mamakating is complete, it's worth noting the process that went into its creation. According to members of the town board, they have spent literally hundreds of man-hours hammering out the details. Since Labor Day, they have met anywhere from three to five days per week, often working late into the evening. It was no doubt hard and, for the most part, thankless work. Yet, throughout this process, there has been a spirit of bipartisanship which has been truly admirable to behold. Council members apparently decided early on that they are neighbors first and political opponents second. This is truly refreshing to see.

And given the tenor of the previous administration — that of the late Charles Penna — the fact that such bipartisan comity has taken root under the gentle stewardship of current Supervisor Robert Fiore is worthy of praise, especially when one considers the "poison pill" the board has been forced to deliver to the taxpayers. A twenty-percent increase in general tax is certainly no small matter.

But it was a mess that needed to be cleaned up, and sooner rather than later. Again, the former administration simply didn't do its job. Had it been on top of the situation, taxpayers would have seen modest increases of three to five percent per annum, as opposed to the whopper of an increase residents of the town will now have to deal with.

But the board's hands are tied. Municipalities are not like the federal government, who can employ deficit-spending anytime the books don't balance. Towns, on the other hand, are forced to make cuts to services or other such drastic measures if they want to remain solvent. They are, quite literally, bound by law to do so.

Yet, given all of this, the town board got the job done, and did so in a manner that will, in the long run, be less painful to taxpayers than simply allowing the situation to continue to fester. Not fixing it this year means the problem will be that much worse next year. Fiore, et al., have managed to stop the bleeding and get the Town of Mamakating back on the road to fiscal responsibility.

And this is a lesson for government officials at the federal level. We will have a new administration in Washington come next year. The next president and congress would do well to see the kind of hard work that takes place on the local level as a model for their own budget-wrangling. After eight years of partisan "gotcha," a new approach is needed, one in which we remember that all of us are neighbors — and, more importantly, Americans — and that with enough political will, bridges can still be built, and that there are core values that we all hold dearly. The hard work that has been done in Mamakating is not only refreshing, but an exemplar for those elected officials on the federal level — on both sides of the aisle — who continue to put party before country. Supervisor Fiore and the rest of the town board should be commended for their efforts.

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