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Mike Sigler's mailer talks about his accomplishments in his first term representing the Town of Lansing on the Tompkins County Legislature.  In big letters it says, 'But Mike's Not Done.'  Sigler sat down with the Lansing Star last week to talk about what he thinks is important for the coming term, and why he is the man to do it.

Sigler has lived in Lansing for just over four years with his wife Sarah, their daughter and his step son.  He is an Account Executive for Park Communications, and works with a technology firm, IDI.

Lansing Star: Why are you running for County Board?  Why should there be a Republican in that slot representing the Town of Lansing?  What makes you a better choice than your opponent?

Mike Sigler: Let me start with the middle question.  Something interesting happened back in  January.  Democrats on the Legislature wanted to do a leadership team.  One person was against that.  The Republicans all supported Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, a Democrat, for vice chair. 

We liked the job she was doing and we decided we were going to vote for her for vice chair.  Apparently the Democrats didn't expect us to do that.  Maybe if they had talked to us beforehand they would have known that.

She got eight votes, and that vote should stand.  That's what we were fighting for.  You had a legal election.  So when people say, 'Why should we vote for Republicans?' -- it's things like that.  Granted (the Democrats) are in a majority.  I'm hoping that at the end of this election their majority will be ten votes to five votes.

We can peel off three or four people sometimes.  This is not national politics.  This is county issues.  If you just deal with county issues you can find middle ground on things.

You ask why me over my opponent.  When people talk about fiscal responsibility and things like that, I have a record on that.  One of the proudest things that I've done on the Legislature was a piece of legislation I moved three years ago.  It was saying if someone leaves a department we're not going to automatically fill that position.  Instead it will be reviewed by not just the department head, but by the County Administrator.

The reason you want to do this is that a department head will very rarely say, 'Lets' not fill that position.'  Obviously the person is serving a role the department head thins is necessary.  Otherwise why wouldn't you have cut them earlier?  You wouldn't have needed (the position).

Now it's in the hands of the County Administrator to review that position.  He might say, 'Yes, it's an important job and an important task, but it's something we no longer have the money to do.  Then he would bring it to the Legislature.

Now is the time to do this.  You have all these 'baby  boomers' retiring.  Right now is the optimum time to do that.

I moved that piece of legislation the first year I was in, the second year I was in.  I met with Steve Whicher, the former County Administrator, to write it up so that it was in a language that was easily understood.  I just couldn't get it passed.

Then this year we had a new County Administrator.  He  was in a honeymoon period.  I went to him very early with the legislation.  He tweaked it a little bit and we were able to get it passed, not unanimously, but pretty close.  We had over ten votes for it.

In August we shed 14 positions and saved over $800,000.  Will we ever hire those positions back?  I don't know, but I don't think our finances are going to get better in the next five years.  We had a public meeting over this year's budget, and everybody was saying, 'Please don't cut this program.'  

I stood up at the end and said, 'I appreciate what you;re all saying.  Nobody here wants to cut any of these things.  We think they're important, but I just don't know if we have the money for them.  If you think these things are important you need to start electing different people to the State Legislature, or get on the phone with your State Legislators.  When you see (how high ) the pension costs are going to go up to in the next five years you're not going to have money for any of these things.'

There's the rub.  If you say these things are so important we've got to start cutting some other things.  Protect what you think is important.

For me what's important -- the Health Department is right at the top for me.  I look at the Health Department and it touches everything that you do.  You go out and have breakfast at Linda's.  They make sure that that restaurant is clean.  All the other restaurants in town, even the food stores.  It's very important.  With swine flu coming to the fore, that is a critical department.

Early intervention is a big deal for me.  I have a personal investment in that, or I did -- now my daughter is out of that, but I saw what a difference getting to these learning disabilities early made.  When my daughter goes to kindergarten she'll be like any other kid.

This is why this crosses over into local politics.  The County position is no more important than the Town Board.  It's no more important than the people you elect to the school board.  It's just different.  We do different things.

If you get to a kid early with early intervention, say at one year old, the County takes care of them until age three.  Then the school district takes over.  By the time they're five and going into kindergarten if they're just like any other kid -- maybe they'll need some speech therapy -- you've just saved the school district a ton of money.

Your county tax dollars are making an investment to save you money on your school tax, which is an enormous tax.  That's the biggest thing you pay.  Anything we can do to mitigate that at the school level is important.

LS: What are the key challenges for the County over the next four years?  What are the top issues you personally want to address?

MS: The number one issue for the County and for towns is going to be pensions.  As people retire we are confronted with not having enough money in our pension fund.  New York State isn't even the worst off -- other states are going to have a much tougher time with this.  Stocks went down. We don't have enough money.  Frankly were we really funding it at the level we should have been?  It's questionable.

That's something the unions should have fought for a little harder, and politicians in general kind of kicked the can down the road, and now you're going to see it.  Taxes are going to go up just because we have to pay these increases in pension funds.

We can't do anything about the people we've already made commitments to.  Once we've made commitments we have to live up to those commitments.  That's in the constitution, but it's the right thing to do.  You tell people what you're going to do and you do it.

Some other things are going to happen.  People are going to retire but they're going to keep working for the County.  People are going to say, 'That's wrong.  that's like double dipping.'  Well, it will save you money, believe it or not.  All these people are doing is taking a benefit that they've earned.  Then are you going to kick them out in favor of somebody that doesn't have as much experience?  Who is really going to end up costing you more because you're going to have to pay them that salary, because it is a graded salary, plus you're going to have to pay their pension.  With this other person you're not going to do that, so it will save you money.  But people aren't going to like that, it's going to be unpopular.

You have to understand those kinds of issues.  When people ask what I bring to the Legislature, I understand those issues, and that's a path that hopefully when we're doing things, I can explain them.

I've said tat to people on the Legislature. I've said I'll vote for some things even if a lot of my constituents may think this is a bad idea.  But if I can go to them and say this is why I did that -- I can explain it.  If you can't explain it I don't know why people vote for you.

When I voted for the $50,000 emergency for the Ithaca Drop In Center a lot of the people who vote for me said, 'what are you doing?'  But I was able to explain it.  (Without it) these people wouldn't have had day care in two weeks, and we made a commitment to that.  So we gave them $50,000 with the understanding that their books have to come up even.  You've got to be self-sustaining within a year.  I know that's a lot to ask, but if we don't make that kind of requirement everybody's going to ask for funding, and frankly we don't have the money to do that.

LS: How do you view the proposed budget cuts in this year's process?  Is the county excessive in social services and how is the balance between social and municipal services?

MS: I do not like across the board cuts.  I said this early on.  I like that we set a budget target.  That will be something that's hotly debated in the County Legislature this year.  I don't know if we have the votes to do it with Mike Koplinka-Loehr presumably leaving.

LS: That's where you set a goal for the overall budget and try to fit the details within that?

MS: That's right.  On the other hand I do not like that everybody had to cut 6%.  On the upside the larger departments are going to cut more money.  On the downside everybody's the same.  Frankly I think the Health Department has a lot to contend with this year.  A lot of people are worried about the swine flue and flu in general.

So I'm not a big fan of across the board cuts.

With that said, we're at a point where this budget makes some deep cuts to things.  However, New York State is tapped.  I am of the mind that you really can't go higher.  You passed the point a long time ago where you could have said we can raise it a little bit and people still won't leave.

If you believe in the Laffer curve, you're way over the curve here.  New York State is the second least friendly state to business.  Energy costs this year are going up.

LS: What's the first?

MS: New Jersey, actually.

Look at your property taxes.  Property taxes here are just unbelievable.  Then you have income tax on top of that.  Our sales tax is 8%.  My Dad lives in New Jersey and when he says your sales tax is high...  The cost of food here is more.  The cost of electricity here is a lot more.  Why? We have the largest power dam... We keep losing population.  I think we're losing two congressmen in the next census.

This state needs to do something pretty drastic.  It has to make a cut in taxes enough that people around the country will say, 'I can do business there again.'

What this state has forgotten is that money is mobile.  There's no reason for Wall Street to be on Wall Street any more.  They could move anywhere.  People seem to think that these old attachments mean more than they do.  When I go door to door, people are advising their kids not to live in New York State.  You move to Virginia and you're going to make 30% more just by not having to pay certain taxes.

That is not a good climate.

I've worked at a number one television station in the market, I've worked at a number three.  It's not good working at the number three.  It's just kind of working to make money.  That's how I feel New York State is.  We're holding our own, but we're not advancing toward anything.  That's not the kind of climate I want to live in.  I want to live in a dynamic economy.


LS: What about the balance of social and municipal services in the County?

MS: Municipal services... that's what people expect from us.  They expect roads.  That's something that's so visual.  I was talking to the Chamber of Commerce about this.  When you bring in people to interview them for a job and drive them wherever, the quality of the roads is important.  It's a symbol of how you care about your community.  If you want to attract business people need to know that people care about your community.

You drive through the Village of Lansing, for example, and wow, you have street lights, sidewalks, the roads are nice, the mall's right there.  People go OK.

The Cornell Technical Park is a nice attraction.  The airport's right there.  The whole County needs to take control of that and say this is what's important to us.  That's not to say that social services aren't important.  There are certain things you have to combat.

A lot of the things in the Health Department are social service.  It's not just the Department of Social Services that handles these things.

There are certain programs that actually save you money.  We give a certain amount of money -- when people are trying to get an apartment they need a security deposit.  There's a program that gives you $500 towards that, and you can get people into apartments.  That ends up being a lot cheaper than putting them up in a shelter or a hotel.  There is a simple thing that we do.  On its face you go, 'Why are we doing that?'  But it actually does end up saving you money.

LS: I picked two county-wide issues that I think are particularly relevant now in Lansing.  The first is how important is rural broadband right now?  What can or should the Legislature do about it?

MS: About four months ago I brought in New Visions Technology.  It's a company up in Syracuse.  The nice thing about them is they work with existing systems.  Their last mile is over your power lines.  It is pretty new technology.  People are skeptical about how well it works, but it's there.

We had a meeting on that.  The nice thing about that meeting was -- the County doesn't endorse any of these things.  We want to keep it competitive.  At that meeting we had three companies.  Fingerlakes Technology was there.  Chuck Bartosch from Clarity Connect was there.  It was great having all those people in the room.

The guy that was pitching this didn't like it that much, but this is supposed to be competitive.  That's how you get the best technology available.  If government starts picking technology we would all have wifi at exorbitant cost, and nobody uses wifi anymore.  For municipalities it's kind of a dated technology.

So when Chuck Bartosch came through with this stimulus package he wanted us to endorse I asked him if it is going to be open to every provider.  He said yes, it is.  That is one of the requirements.  He's been in the community a long time and it needed a lead.  So he was the lead on that.

Some Democrats on the Legislature called another meeting.  They had him there and he described what he needed.  Great.

That moved forward in the legislature and a number of us voted for it, because it's open to everybody.  That was an important feature of that.

I know enough about broadband to know that fiber is not going away.  There is enough fiber in the ground now, and it can handle the kind of broadband you're talking about and it's a well known technology.  Plus you can utilize it for different technologies.

Then (Bartosch) said he needed an endorsement from the Town of Lansing.  Scott Pinney wrote a letter.  I stayed in the loop on that and made sure everything was going to get done on time.  You've got some great people there.  Charmagne Rumgay was working on that.  Hurf Sheldon was involved in this.  So you had people that were already involved, and those are the people you have to know and reach out to.

I go to the library (for broadband).  The only was I can get something close to it is by cell phone.  But it's not the best way to do things.

LS: The second issue I picked is gas and oil drilling in town.  A lot of residents have contracts with the exploration companies.  Now it seems as thought there is a lot of concern about what it will do to the ground water and the liquid they inject into the earth for hydro-fracting.  The third piece is the damage those trucks will do to the roads and infrastructure.

MS: This is a good example of something that is less of a County issue and more of a Town issue and a State issue.  The County doesn't play much of a role in this.  I don't mean to be dismissive about it.  It's not under our purvue.

We can pass a resolution that says 'we think the State should do this.'  But the towns have more control than we have, and they don't even have that much.  They can lobby the State.

So my job as a County Legislator is to collect the concerns of the people and relay those to (State Senator) Mike Nozzolio.  I think I've done a pretty good job of that so far.

A lot of these leases are coming up, but the way.  Mine is coming up, and I signed when everybody else was signing.  They sent me something in the mail saying they'd renew it for $100.  I'm not going to take that.  A lot of the large landowners aren't going to take that -- they're going to want to renegotiate (for more money).

They need something like 500 contiguous acres to drill, so it;s in the hands of the large landowners.  You've got to remember that a lot of these landowners are farmers who aren't making too much money right now.

The big thing you have to be concerned about when you're drilling -- yes, ground water.  People forget these wells are deep.  It's kind of like when people used to worry about the salt breaking through into the lake.  The mine is deep.  The mine is way below the lake.  And it's the same thing with gas.  You're drilling way down below.

Does that mean it's impossible to contaminate the ground water?  No, but spills are a much bigger concern.  And the roads are a concern.

You have to balance property owners' rights versus the environment.

New York State is not west Texas.  New York State has some of the strictest environmental codes anywhere.  I am confident that our legislators at the state level will make sure these laws are strict.  I can convey my opinions to them, but the County cannot restrict it.

The garbage trucks (using local roads to avoid the toll road, degrading local infrastructure) are a good example.  We couldn't just ban them from county roads.  We had to go to the State, and something was able to be worked out.  Yes, in that regard we have some sway, but from a legislative standpoint there isn't much we can do.

My advice to people is -- they have to notify you when they're going to drill -- when they notify you of that within six months before the drilling you get your water tested.  Make sure it is done in a way that will hold up under scrutiny by the drilling company.

LS: So you have something for comparison later?

MS: Right, you need a base line.  You can't do it too early.  If you do they'll say your well was contaminated by something else.

It's something to be aware of, but people have the right to do with their mineral rights what they deem fit.  As long as it doesn't harm their neighbor.  And hydro-fracting is not a new drilling technique.  It's been done for 60 years.  Again, that does not mean that we shouldn't have strict regulations.

LS: What unique benefits will you bring to the County as the Lansing representative?

MS: I think the biggest thing I can bring is that I'm knowledgeable about a lot of things, but I also find myself to be even handed about things.  I have a core set of values that I don't break, so when people ask what's Mike Sigler about I am easy to figure out in that regard.

I always think it's funny when the Democrats are surprised I voted a certain way.  They put out letters about who is what.  I voted for certain things so clearly they don't know who's what.  There are some things I vote for that are neither Progressive, or Republican, or Democrat.  They seem to be the right thing to do.

As long as I can defend that I am very comfortable with my votes.  I've done everything I can to try to cut spending in the County, because if you don't cut the spending you're not going to cut taxes.  It's really that simple.  We're at a point where you can not raise taxes in New York State any more.

It's not like you're going to have a revolt.  People vote with their feet.  I drive a lot in my job, and I go to towns and there's nobody there.  A lot of upstate New York is like that.  You can go to streets in Elmira where all the businesses are closed.  There's nobody there. $50 per thousand there.

In Ithaca, granted you have colleges so you don't see it as much here.  But should we make it so hard for companies to do business here?  Don't you want jobs to move in here?

I'm excited when I go to these companies and see what they're doing.  I think it's amazing that we're able to do some of the things today that ten years ago were just impossible.

And some basic stuff.  IDI, the company I've been working for, they make a wing deicer.  I sent that down to somebody and they said, 'I never would have thought of this.'  If that takes off it will produce 100 jobs in this area.  The people are going to want to stay here.  That's how you start local businesses.

That's where I come from.  I think I bring a business sense to the position that is not linked to the past.  The stimulus package, for example.  You can spend it on roads or you can spend it on all this -- I would have given it all to the Small business Administration to give out in grants.  I know the place I work for could have built a wind tunnel for $750,000.  I'm sure that wind tunnel would have been built by American labor, and we would have used that to certify things and could then have sold them commercially.  Other people need clean rooms so that they can make certain wafers.  So these are capital expenditures that people could be making.

But government for some reason doesn't want the people to do it.  They want the government to do it.  To me that's very limiting.  you're not going to get the diversity that you would if you just let the marketplace do it.  And you wouldn't have the graft.  (laughs)

So that's what I bring.  I bring a sense of fairness and honesty.  I don't like corruption.  I don't like graft.  That whole thing that happened with the Democrats in January -- we had to fight to uphold an election.

LS: That was the vote within the legislature for Vice-chair.

MS: Right.  Leslyn won.  We had to fight to keep her in an election that she won!  I felt very good about doing that.  People can say the Republicans were doing this or that -- we didn't do anything.  We just voted for who we wanted.  And then when she won we fought to keep her in there.  That was it.

That's who you want, people that fight for what's right.  And that's what I do on the County Legislature.

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