For five years, every budget presented by Town Supervisor Josh Wojehowski passed with the full support of the elected Republican and Conservative members of the Town Board. Every bond issue, every tax rate, every infrastructure investment, every spending plan.

Now, with an election at hand, Helen Bunt and the Republican party are suddenly casting Cornwall’s thoughtful approach to budgeting and planning as a partisan failure. They are running against a record they helped create and praised in their own words. Cornwall must reject the hypocrisy and dishonesty by politicians now trying to advance their failed career with lies and misinformation.

Cornwall voters know the record and must reject this attempt to re-write facts. Unlike those in MAGA world that want to create an “alternate reality,” the truth is that Cornwall traditionally has had a very cooperative and bipartisan approach to budgeting and taxation. We should all be proud of this, Democrat, Republican, Conservatives working together to make Cornwall the best it can be.

Those were not Democratic budgets. They were not Josh’s budgets. They were Cornwall’s budgets which were carefully constructed to fund essential town services, maintain our infrastructure, and keep Cornwall fiscally sound. And the Republicans on the board knew it.

They voted for them, every time.

Don’t take my word for it. Look at what they said when they voted to adopt the 2026 budget. It is on the town website for all to see. Conservative Councilman McCarty acknowledged it was “a tough budget” with three major union contracts to settle — PBA, EMS, and CSEA — along with significant infrastructure projects, all during a period of high inflation. He voted yes. As he did on all prior budgets and bond approvals.

Republican Councilwoman Edelman-Reyes was even more direct: “We are correcting pay disparities for our staff. It’s important for our employees to be able to live here or in the surrounding areas.” She noted that Cornwall has “made strides to show appreciation for our staff.” She called the budget “fair and appropriate in an independent way”. She voted yes.

Every project they now question, every Republican voted to fund. Every dollar of employee compensation they now criticize, they called fair and appropriate just months ago. This kind of election-year revisionism is not just intellectually dishonest and hypocritical; it is a disservice to the community. The record is clear, it is public, and it is in their own words.
Cornwall’s residents deserve better than that.