Frank Castiglia Jr.: Oswego County Needs Redistricting, Reductions

by Contributor | September 9, 2021 10:47 am

To the Editor,

Oswego County needs some R N R! (Redistricting) N (Reduction)!

With the 2020 census complete and official. Oswego county has gone from a population of 122,000 down to a population of 117,000. A loss of some 5,000 people. With that information and some comparison to another county it is time for redistricting and reduction in the County Legislature.

Oswego county has 25 legislators, Onondaga county has 17 legislators. Oswego county has a population of 117,000 and Onondaga county has a population of 467,000. Why so many legislators for so few people. This means that each legislator in Oswego county represents some 4,700 people and in Onondaga county each legislator represents some 28,000 people. Now someone will say that Onondaga county isn’t as large as Oswego county. Onondaga county has 800 sq. miles and Oswego has 1,300 sq. miles but if you take away the 400 sq. miles of water Oswego county only has 900 sq. miles of land. We don’t need 8 more legislators to cover 100 extra sq. miles.

The cities of Fulton and Oswego do not require 4 legislators for each city. Each city has 2 legislators for each side of the river. Each city only requires 2 legislators, one for each side of the river. They must reside inside the city limits.

There are towns that have more than 2 legislators that represent them. Most people live across the road from their neighbor or next door and each has a different legislator. This is unacceptable.

If each of the two Cities reduce their legislators by 2 that would reduce the legislature by 4, The remaining 4 reductions would come from the plethora of legislators representing town in the county.

These reductions would save the taxpayers approximately $112,000 a year and over 10 years $1,120,000.

The key is LESS government. The county needs smaller government and better representation.

-Frank Castiglia Jr.

Source URL: https://oswegocountytoday.com/opinion/letters-to-the-editor/frank-castiglia-jr-oswego-county-needs-redistricting-reductions/

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