The village of New Paltz is considering dissolving and having the town of New Paltz serve as the area’s municipal government. Village Mayor Tim Rogers said the move is being considered not out of duress, but out of making the most efficient government for taxpayers in the village and town.

It would do away with an additional village tax for residents. But more importantly, Rogers thinks it would be easier to plan for water and sewer infrastructure projects. 

“Making sure that all these planning decisions are being thought about across the entire community, not just the village system or the town sewer districts or town water districts," he said. "But that everything is being looked at as one large, integrated system.” 

New Paltz could become the 26th New York village to dissolve since 2000. New York Conference of Mayors General Counsel Wade Beltramo says dissolutions typically happen during economic downturns.

“If you can't get people to serve, then if you can't fund your government, maybe you shouldn't exist. Local governments don't exist for their own purposes. They exist to serve the underlying community,” Beltramo said.

Right now, Beltramo says there’s a lull in dissolution proposals. He said the time is right because the village and town already share a police department, fire department and court system. 

Rogers’ reasons for dissolving is, in part, about making it easier for sewer and water projects to go forward. But sometimes efficiency is hard to actually achieve.

“It's not like there's a bunch of town employees sitting around that are just going to take over doing what the village employees were doing. Generally, when the village dissolves, most of those employees go to the town,” Beltramo said.   

Rogers hopes to have a village dissolution public referendum on the ballot in November 2025. 

He says above everything, he wants to make sure New Paltz has an effective government that is filling the needs of all its residents, in and out of the village.

“It makes a lot of sense to focus on what we're doing right, and to try to continue with like where staff are being effective,” Rogers said.