About a decade ago when Vince Horrigan served as Chautauqua County executive, our newspaper did an editorial referencing how this area’s curse is minimizing continuing tax increases. At that time, Horrigan noted the county tax rate was increasing by pennies per $1,000 of assessed valuation.

Never mind that costs for property owners were going up, it just wasn’t at a large margin.

For the record, there is no minimizing what is happening in the city of Dunkirk or what could be coming for the village of Fredonia. City officials are cobbling together a budget plan for 2025 that will include a hike of at least 60%. Fredonia appears to be running out of money — and still has six months left in its fiscal year that ends in June.

So is life in the north county where the region continues to over-invest in public entities — its schools and governments. As population has continued to decline, taxpayer-funded entities keep growing — in terms of employees, equipment, vehicles and buildings.

Big government and an abundance of schools is enough to strangle a population where poverty rates countywide are 17%, according to the U.S. Census, and 25% in the village of Fredonia and city of Dunkirk.

This year has been an eye-opener in terms of just how sustainable and responsible our current system of municipal oversight can be. Some are at least considering the consolidation of services, which is one step toward savings.

Other municipalities, unfortunately, will remain stubborn — and continue to go their own way while minimizing tax increases. Those who have had enough, will vote with their feet.

We all complain about inflation when we’re purchasing food or services. But why do we continue to accept the high cost of small schools and the government?

These growing costs are part of the reason our population has declined for 50 years. Rightsizing of governments and schools is long overdue.

Just ask the city of Dunkirk and village of Fredonia. If both were private entities, with no cash flow, they would be facing a stark reality of going out of business.