The story goes that back in the eighties The Winged Foot Golf Club in Westchester County, New York raised it dues. At a Board Meeting a member rose to complain and challenge the increase. It is said the board huddled and told the member it was no longer a problem for the member because the board had just unanimously voted to rescind his membership. After the member paid next year’s dues with the increase, he was reinstated. Now who was it that said, “Absolute power corrupts absolutely.” Machiavelli himself would have been proud of the latest moves of the “poor” 40 of Sagaponack whose homes along Town Line Road were just transferred from The Wainscott school district to the Southampton school district because a map dating back to 1871 which had been the basis for the boundaries was no longer going to be used. Not to worry, however. No children will be affected. Gloriously it seems there is only one child of school age in any of the 40 homes and the child is attending a private school.

So what this actually means is that $90 million worth of real estate will get a school tax increase from 14.22 per $100 to 15.24 per $100. It’s nice to pay that increase when you have no one using the schools. An analogy would be every resident in East Hampton getting an increase to help subsidize the Staten Island Ferry, which I’m sure, is already probably happening in the state tax each year.

Professor Hinton of The George Washington University Political Science Department of the late 70s use to say politics is who gets what, where, when, how, and why. In this case it is the 40 homes on Town Line Road getting a school tax increase in Sagaponack as a result of some of the fine print of the incorporation of the village of Sagaponack because of the ruling of the Eastern Suffolk Board of Cooperative Educational Services.

There were no reports of widespread protest looting or riots upon the announcement of the tax increase to the 40 homes. Maybe with an average value of $2.2 million of each the homeowners can afford it. More likely they don’t even know about it yet. And it is a brilliant tax increase because more money is being collected for absolutely no services. I am sure both Professor Hinton and Machiavelli would be impressed. The Wing Foot Golf Club Board should also be informed perhaps they could raise greens fees for the non-golfing members. The last note of this story is that if you buy a home on a road called Town Line Road always make sure which side and to which town your school district taxes go. The beauty of the situation was reported by Mr. Dominic Annacone, District Superintendent, of Wainscott. “The disturbing thing about the whole thing is that we got no notification whatsoever. I just don’t see us losing (Wainscott school district) that amount of taxes. If we have to we will litigate it, it’s too big a sum.” But what about the Sagaponack 40 who just got the school tax increase, who cares about them?