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Town Board members accepted a tentative $4,911,788 2018 budget Wednesday.  Lansing Supervisor Ed LaVigne said the fiscal outlook for the Town this year is good, despite the continuing devaluation of Lansing's largest taxpayer, the Cayuga Power Plant.  he said new building and a rise in Lansing's overall assessment means the Town will receive more tax revenue this year while maintaining a low tax rate rise.

"We're in a good spot in my opinion," LaVigne told board members.  "We took a $25 million hit with the power plant, but we still went up $11 million total on the other side.  What that means is that the tax rate is 1.49 and we've got $16,000 to play with.  It's not a windfall.  It's not huge.  What it does mean, though, is we keep our expenses within range, our fund balance this year we used $202,000 to front-load it (reduce the tax levy).  Last year it was $215,000.  At the end of the year all the fund balances went up."

The projection is based on $4,911,788 2018 appropriations, $202,000 of unexpended fund balance (underspending this year), leaving $1,960,913.92 to be collected in property taxes.  Six water, sewer, and lighting districts have a total budget of $1,426,987 of which $865,150 is expected to come from revenues, $19,116.25 from unexpended fund balances in the two sewer districts (Warren Road and Cherry Road), leaving $542,721.53 to be collected from property owners who live within those specific districts.

"We have $25 million on the negative side from the power plant PILOT," LaVigne said.  "But between the assessments and 'new lumber', which is about $23 million, we're at about $11 million to the good.  Construction is going well in the south."

The current Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) agreement Tompkins County negotiated with Cayuga Power Plant calls for a $25 million drop in assessed value this year, and $10 million next year and again in the following year.  Since 2009 the plant has lost $125 million in value.  While new construction and reassessment has put the overall Lansing assessment about $11 million in the black for this year, taxing authorities within town boundaries are still in the red in terms of making up for the entire loss of plant value.

LaVigne said the Town has been able to save money by eliminating two positions and absorbing their responsibilities into other job descriptions.

"Our productivity is up," he said.  "We have eliminated two positions.  Our bookkeeper absorbed one position.  Sue munson slid over (from the Supervisor's Office) and she does a great job in the Codes Office.  They work well together, and work well with (Town Clerk) Mrs. Munson.  They work as a team.  The same thing with the Rec Department that works well with the Highway Department.  Lansing is getting stronger every day, and that includes the Village."

The new budget includes a 2% raise for town employees, but also raises their health care contribution by 2.5%.

"We're at 10% right now, and our goal is to eventually get to 20%," LaVigne reported.  "We want to gently nudge that up.  We crunched different numbers -- we could have gone 5% up, but I didn't think that was fair because it wouldn't have left much meat on the bone for them.  2.5% is more desirable for everyone.  And they knew that it was coming."

LaVigne said next year will put the Town in a stronger position because the power plant is 'only' scheduled to lose $10 million in value.  He noted that the owners of the plant will be negotiating a new PILOT for an 18MW solar farm on power plant property in north-west Lansing.  He said that will add more dollars to the tax rolls to help mitigate losses from the coal-fueled plant.

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