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Village of Lansing officials again expressed dissatisfaction with town taxes and services they say villagers pay for but do not receive.  Mayor Donald Hartill told the Trustees that he has tried to negotiate with town officials about reducing taxes for villagers, but said he feels he has not been taken seriously.  Hartill has threatened to secede from the Town many times over the years, but has never made any serious attempt to pursue it.  Monday he said it is time to get serious.

"I've found dealing with the Town very frustrating, to put it bluntly," Hartill said.  "I'm starting to think seriously about it.  I mean we've just blown off this past budget year.  If there's not a serious attempt to realize that the villagers are being treated as a cash cow next year, then I think it's time to be serious.  Unfortunately."

Hartill raised the possibility of seceding from the Town in 2010, after a 2009 flap over the cost of snow plowing.  The Village had been paying well below the cost of plowing according to a formula that had been used for many years.  The Town Highway Department calculated the actual cost of plowing Village roads and asked the Village to pay its share, but Hartill said the estimate was too high.  Negotiations that became acrimonious at times, with the result that the Village decided to do its own plowing rather than pay the higher price.

Five years ago Hartill said villagers are subsidizing the township by about $600,000.  He charged that more than half of the Town's personnel cost is in the Whole Town budget (the Town budget is divided into two sections for the 'whole town' and the part of the Town that is outside the Village).  Hartill said villagers are paying around $130,000 per year for plowing the roads in the Town outside the Village.  Monday he reiterated his frustration that it has not been addressed.

"The Town has been reticent in terms of realizing that the Village exists, that the village residents exist," Hartill said.  "The fact that we pay for their snow plowing... I've tried unsuccessfully for several years to get that changed.  The candidates, basically, just blow it off."

Seceding from a town is very rare, though not unheard of.  According to the NYS Department of State Web site, "A coterminous town-village is a unique form of local government organization. Geographically, the town and village share the same boundaries.  Depending on how the coterminous unit is formed, the town and the village function together as a single local government or as two separate local governments. As a single unit of government, the governing body of one unit of the coterminous government serves as the governing body of the other unit. This process results in one of the forms of government being the primary form of government -- either town of village -- effectively eliminating the other as far as administration is concerned.  Where the coterminous entity functions as two local governments, separate officers and boards are chosen or selected and both town and village entities possess governance authority."

In other words, the Village of Lansing would also be a town and would take on the responsibility for providing services the Town of Lansing currently provides.  Hartill has repeatedly claimed that the Village could do that more economically than the current structure does, effectively lowering village taxes.

There are only five coterminous town-villages in New York State.  Westchester County Has three.  Albany County and Monroe County each have one.  The same person in a coterminous town-village serves as both village mayor and town supervisor, and village trustees serve as the town board, unless voters choose to have two boards.  School district boundaries are not affected, and the Lansing Fire District boundaries wouldn't necessarily be impacted.

"The Town would lose about a third of its income, which is provided by the villagers," Hartill said.  "That's a very drastic move, but, on the other hand, it does get attention."

Coterminous has historically been used as a threat to get concessions in municipal negotiations.  Over the past half-decade Hartill has never taken any steps to set seceding from the Town in motion.  But Monday he said he has almost come to the point where he will do it.

"I'm starting to think seriously about it," he said.  "Really."

At the same time the Trustees discussed ways the Village can encourage its citizens to avail themselves of some of the services and programs the Town offers.  Village resident Nick Vaczek chided the Trustees for not making it clear on the Village Web site why Villagers should vote in Town elections, because town legislators impact various aspects of village life.  There was much discussion about how much the village government should do to influence town elections, including hosting candidates in town elections for village meet-and-greets.

"A third of the Town residents live in the Village," noted Deputy Mayor Gerry Monaghan.  "We need to understand that.  These people are entitled to go to the Town for certain services.  They have a right to expect them.  But it's not the Village government's role to kibitz in town politics.  It's more that people who are socially active in the Village need to encourage their friends and neighbors to get out and vote, because it directly impacts our standing in discussions with the Town."

On Wednesday the Town Board passed the 2016 budget.  As in past years, villagers will pay the same tax rate as townspeople who live outside the Village, offset by other revenues such as sales tax.

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