Archive: News

Two New Legislators Begin Service; Legislature Reduced to 14 Members
The Legislature welcomed two new colleagues for the four-year term that runs through the end of 2017.  The newly elected Legislators, along with eleven of 12 incumbents (Legislator Dave McKenna was excused), were sworn in by Tompkins County Clerk Aurora R. Valenti just before the Legislature meeting.  With this term, the Legislature is made up of 14 members (reduced by one from its former complement of 15), due to redistricting as a result of the 2010 Census.

New to the Legislature is Daniel Klein (D), representing District 7 (Caroline, Danby, and a portion of the Town of Ithaca) and Michael Sigler (R) who, after serving from 2006-2009, is returning to the Legislature for a second term to represent District 6 (Town of Lansing).

With the reduction to 14 legislative districts, district numbers have changed for three of the returning Legislators (Legislators Leslyn McBean-Clairborne (D-now District 1), Kathy Luz Herrera (D-now District 2), and Jim Dennis (now District 5), and district boundaries for most have been adjusted to accommodate the new district alignment.

Legislature Urges Local Option to Distinguish Between Residential and Commercial Energy Systems
The Legislature, by unanimous vote (Legislator Dave McKenna was excused), urged the State Legislature to amend a section of Real Property Tax Law to provide by local option the ability of localities to distinguish between residential and commercial energy system related to a 15-year exemption from real property taxation for qualifying solar, wind, or farm-waste energy systems.  The measure notes that the Legislature would like to encourage residential installations, and would also like to encourage installation of large-scale production facilities, such as wind or solar, but without providing a 15-year tax abatement.  It has no mechanism under current law to distinguish between the residential and commercial systems for the purposes of taxation.

Among other business:

• The Legislature voted to accept a $1,975 grant from the Community Foundation of Tompkins County Social Justice Fund to support continuation of the Workforce Diversity and Inclusion (WDIC) Committee Reading and Discussion program in 2014.  An identical amount has been granted by the Community Foundation for 2015.

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