A vote in an Orleans County village on Tuesday bears watching by residents here.

If approved, the village of Medina will be dissolved and absorbed by the towns of Ridgeway and Shelby. If not approved – a big “what if” fear factor is already in play here – everything will stay the same.

“The village is an extra entity over the towns and the village residents not only support the village government, but the town’s as well,” Andrew Meier, Medina’s mayor and an outspoken supporter of dissolution, told the Democrat and Chronicle of Rochester. “The village residents end up double taxed by merely existing as a village, and we need that extra level to go away.”

Well said, Mr. Mayor.

As many here already know, residents in New York state pay some of the highest taxes in the nation. Duplication of governments and school districts in our small upstate counties is a main ingredient in those soaring costs.

But tradition is a hard habit to break. So even though this corner is pulling for Medina voters to say “yes,” fear of the unknown is often greater than the fear of the current poor decisions being made at that extra layer of government.

We see that far too often here as well.