By CRAIG FREILICH

POTSDAM – A majority of registered voters in the Village of Potsdam would vote for dissolving village government, according to a recently survey by a SUNY Potsdam politics class.

The majority is hoping for a lower tax bill, according to the survey. But if dissolution resulted in a decline in services, support for dissolution drops substantially, even among those who say they think taxes are unreasonable now.

Students in Robert Hinckley’s Citizen Politics class conducted telephone interviews between March 29 and April 9 with 311 village residents who are registered voters and told the survey callers they were familiar with the issue of dissolution.

Those surveyed were asked first if they have an opinion about dissolution. A total of 55 percent support dissolution, 15 percent are opposed and 30 percent had no opinion.

Respondents were asked if they think local taxes were reasonable, if they don’t know, or if they feel taxes are unreasonable.

A clear majority of those who want dissolution say property taxes are unreasonable -- 61 percent – “while only 46 percent of those who believe taxes are reasonable back dissolution,” said Hinckley and his students in their first report. Hinckley is assistant professor in the Department of Politics.

But if dissolution would result in loss of “valuable services,” total support declined by 20 percent, with only 35 percent in favor under those circumstances. Even among people who feel taxes are now unreasonable, support for dissolving village government dropped to 44 percent if important services were to be curtailed.

The survey reveals mostly satisfied village residents, when it come to services now. Nearly 68 percent said they were satisfied, 11 percent unsatisfied.

“All major services were widely viewed as important, especially fire and rescue (95%), local police (84%) and street maintenance (81%),” the pollsters found.

The report also sees the future of the Potsdam Police Department emerging as a key issue.

The local police were rated as important by 77 percent of people who were being asked questions predicated on the idea of tax relief, while 90 percent said the police were important in the context of questions on preserving services. The disparity was far lower for other services.

Other key findings the survey reveals:

• More than 90 percent of voters said they plan to participate in a dissolution referendum

• More than 60 percent say they are “very likely” to read the Dissolution Study Committee’s final report later this year.

In recent years the state government has recommended that all government entities – particularly municipal governments and school districts – explore the idea of consolidating service delivery among the number of entities attempting to deliver services. For example, the Town and Village of Canton are sharing a municipal building and courts. Both government structures still exist, and are performing different functions, but some savings are believed to have been realized by sharing.

Dissolution of a village government has been examined and tried as a way to cut property taxes while getting former village services from town, county or state agencies, but there are conflicting versions of whether or not the savings derived amount to much and whether or not the resulting level of services is satisfactory.

The village of Potsdam is in the middle of trying to answer those questions by gathering as much information as possible and getting the data into reports the public can use before the matter of dissolving the Village of Potsdam government goes up for a vote, probably in November.

Hinckley and colleague Jack McGuire wanted to provide their students with some practical experience in public policy by having them conduct a credible survey on an issue that is bound to engender strong opinions without the students having to deal with the scale of something like a congressional election.

The survey is round one. In the fall, as the proposed dissolution referendum draws nearer, McGuire’s fall semester Public Opinion class will conduct another survey on the issue.