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Tompkins County Legislator Pat PryorThe Town of Lansing's representative to the Tompkins County Legislature Pat Pryor gave the Town Board an brief update on the 2012 budget process Wednesday.  She told them that with mandate relief the 2% tax cap could amount to a four or five percent tax cap.  But Town Board members were leery of the County Legislature's intentions, saying that it appears the Legislature has already made up its mind to vote to exceed the State cap.

"Listening to the legislators I got the impression that they definitely want to increase the tax cap," said Lansing Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox.  "They don't want to keep it at 2%.  To me this whole thing was a farce as far as the tax cap goes, because everybody is allowed to raise it to whatever they want by a supermajority.  So it doesn't matter that the Governor put this 2% cap in place, because it can be changed.  I was disappointed when Peter Stein said he had met with people in the Town of Ithaca and nine of them raised their hands and said they would be in favor of raising the tax cap."

Pryor said the County is still considering two scenarios, one that raises the County levy by 2% and another at 5.4%.  At 2% the estimated tax rate per $1000 of assessed property value would be $6.60, meaning that the average homeowner (who owns a home valued at $160,000) would pay $1,056 in County taxes.  That scenario would require an 11.2% spending cut amounting to $4.5 million.

If the County goes with a 5.4% rise in the levy the tax rate is estimated to be $6.82, which would cost the same taxpayer $1,091.  That would reduce the amount of reductions the County would have to make in their budget to $3.1 million, or 7.8%.

But Pryor also said that nobody really knows what the real tax cap will be once so-called mandate relief is applied.  She did say that whatever the final cap ends up being will not be enough to pay for State mandates.

"The State is still  putting out regulations as to how we interpret the tax cap," she said.  "First they pass legislation, then they tell you what it actually means.  they did include some mandate relief.  What we think at this point is that the maximum that we will be allowed under the tax cap is in the neighborhood of a four to five percent tax levy rise."

Town Supervisor said that county residents are being taxed out of their homes, and that when the County raised assessments they did not seem to take into account that all taxes rise for property owners whose assessments go up.

"Just remember when the County raises taxes it only sounds like an extra 50 bucks or $100 per household," he said.  "but they still have to pay school taxes, they've got to pay town taxes, maybe village taxes... it's a combination of all the taxes that continually goes up higher than inflation costs go up.  As you look at these numbers it sounds like you're already committed to raising taxes above what the caps are.  To me the caps should be the highest goal and your taxes should actually be lower than that."

While County Legislators say that the tax cap simply shifts the tax burden from the State to counties, Town officials say that Tompkins County are doing the same thing, shifting the burden from the County to the towns.

"I know how this all works," Wilcox told Pryor.  "Whatever these groups don't get from the counties they come back to the towns and ask for funds from us.  Then we're the bad guys because we say no.  So I really think (the Legislature) needs to take a good look at the budget this year."

Pryor noted that the County Legislature has the option to override the tax cap with a supermajority of votes by the Legislature.

"Probably fairly early in our process there will be a resolution to override the tax cap in order to meet the programs that we have to provide," she said.  "The State has set for us a goal that is not reachable, not and still provide the mandates that they require."

Pinney said that the County does have a way to reduce spending on mandates by looking for efficiencies.  Pryor told him that the Legislature is doing just that.  She said they are considering sharing staff between departments, using cross training and job cuts.  She said they are looking at every single program.

"We've reduced the county workforce by 7% over the last two years," she said.  "I fully expect that we're going to have a major reduction in the county workforce again this year.  We've already decided to sell our license to provide home health services, so we will have the assets from that sale once it's completed to put against our tax levy.  Plus, by selling it we not only have the income from the sale, but we've reduced our workforce by 14 people."

Pinney noted the County turned down a proposition to change the color of shoulders on Ellis Hollow Road by a narrow margin, and noted that an alternate proposition will come before the Legislature.  He said he hopes the County refuses to fund such frivolous projects.

"We're going to have many of those fights before this budget season is over," Pryor said.

She went on to lay out her position on the tax cap and her upcoming budget vote.

"I think there will be a lot of pressure on us to vote in favor of going over the tax cap," she said.  "With all respect to the need to economize and find all the reductions we can... having done that if I am convinced that we've really and truly done everything we can do to find ways to cut costs including laying people off, reducing programs, possibly eliminating some programs... if I am convinced that we have done everything we can do and we still are not able to pay for the mandates that we are required to pay for, then I would have to consider going over the tax cap to pay for those things that the State requires us to pay for.  I am not going to vote to pay for things we are not required to pay for."

Pryor voted to pass the 2011 County budget.

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