BERNE — The crowd was kind on Wednesday night when confronting the Berne Town Board about an unexpected 68-percent hike in town taxes.
“It was a real punch in the gut for me,” Joseph Giebelhaus, who was elected supervisor in November, told the 30 or so residents who had gathered for the meeting.
He and Councilwoman Melanie laCour were the only two members currently on the board who had voted for the $4.24 million budget, which came with a tax hike calculated at 38 percent…