In 2006, a groups of local taxpayers-business and property owners were drawn together while attending a rally in protest of high taxes and government over-reach.  The local American legion hall was filled to capacity with angry and vocal taxpayers, eager to grab the microphone and vent their frustrations to the crowd and the three local TV networks crews and cameras that were covering the event.  With minimal marketing but ample word-of-mouth, the event was a true organic, heartfelt reaction from citizens fed-up with their government.

As the event was ending and the camera crews were packing up, a small sub-set of attendees, myself included, looked around and realized there were many familiar faces and common interests.  The genesis of what would become Citizens for a Better Broome began after that meeting and two-years later would result in the formation of a not-for-profit organization dedicated to smaller, affordable, accountable and principled governance.

Our first public event was a taxpayer protest held at Confluence Park in Binghamton on April 15, 2009 which was well attended and attracted local media attention.  We became very active in challenging local school boards to demonstrate more leadership instead of marching lock-step with management.  We were strongly in support of the dissolution of the Village of Johnson City into the Town of Union, an initiative that failed by a handful of votes.  Our group was a strong supporter of merging the neighboring school districts of Chenango Valley and Chenango Forks, a referendum that failed because the process was flawed.  We did score a big win recently in supporting the candidacy of the newly elected Town of Vestal supervisor, ushering in a truly representative style of leadership that was sorely lacking.

Since these projects, we have attempted to fund the revitalization of the Johnson City arch, a process so mired in bureaucratic hold-ups and set-backs we gave up.  We even tried to fund and support churches in maintaining, repairing and ringing their bells again, a lovely tradition that has fallen by the wayside and to that the council of churches wasn’t even interested in helping us.

Social media, word-of-mouth, editorials, even bill boards and a radio show have failed to excite the interest of the public and quite frankly, our small and loyal core group grows tired of trying to help those who don’t seem to want to help themselves or even care.

We pay too much and we get too little.  11 school districts and 24 municipalities in a county of less that 200,000 are 10 districts and 22 municipalities too many, becoming self-serving fiefdoms and mini-kingdoms of their own with zero incentive to change.

We believed our challenges would be in the form of opposition but instead what will end our organization, as well as the world we see rapidly morphing into something unrecognizable is apathy and for that I have no answer and no known cure.