Archive: News

Senator Michael Nozzolio announced he has reintroduced his legislation, Senate Bill 512 in the New York State Senate and is leading the effort to end the Gap Elimination Adjustment (GEA) once and for all in New York.

"Over the last several years, I have heard from hundreds of parents, teachers, school board members, school superintendents and administrators throughout my district, all with the same message; help us put an end to the disastrous Gap Elimination Adjustment," said Nozzolio.

Lansing Town Engineer David Herrick updated the Town Board Monday on what they can do about flooding in the southern portion of the Town.  After severe flooding hit areas of the town two years in a row, Highway Superintendent Jack French says his department receives a couple of calls per week to ask what the Town plans to do about it.  Herrick says he has been studying the local watershed and evaluating the capacities of existing infrastructure in an effort to develop solutions the Town Board can choose from.

"I want to bring the board up to speed on the things that we have done in respect to the awful events of August 2013 and 2014 in the south end of the Town of Lansing," Herrick said.  The first step in trying to understand what could be done to mitigate flood damage is to understand first what the problems are, what the watershed is, and how that watershed contributes to the problems in addition to excessive rainfall."

Basic Information

The Tompkins County Planning Department has released the draft 2015 Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan for public review. The Plan is available on the Department's website for review.

The Tompkins County Legislature first adopted a comprehensive plan in 2004. Entitled Tompkins County Comprehensive Plan: Planning for our Future that Plan contains principles, policies, and actions that have guided the County and other community members as they have made decisions that influence regional develop­ment, involve inter-governmental cooperation, and affect the quality of life in neighborhoods and communities. This first full update of the Comprehensive Plan addresses climate adaptation for the first time, restructures the strong communities section by also addressing healthy communities, adds the two over­arching principles of fiscal responsibility and sustainability, and updates policy statements to make them more direct. The Plan recommends 28 specific action items to be initiated by County government within two years.

Ninety school districts, more than 13% of districts statewide, have been designated as fiscally stressed under New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli's Fiscal Stress Monitoring System. DiNapoli's office evaluated 672 school districts with fiscal years ending on June 30, 2014.

This is the second year DiNapoli's office has assessed and scored the financial stability of school districts. The second round of scoring designated 10 school districts in "significant fiscal stress," 27 in "moderate fiscal stress" and 53 as "susceptible to fiscal stress." Last year, a total of 87 districts were listed in fiscal stress.

The good news is that this year's Lansing School starting budget gap is only $700,000.  In the past handful of years it was $3 million, resulting in years of cuts in employee positions including teachers, and other expenditures.  The bad news is that even the lower gap would raise taxes significantly by adding 6.54% to last year's tax rate.  That would mean exceeding the New York State tax levy cap, or suffering more cuts if other revenue can not be found.

But Lansing School Business Administrator Mary June King told the Board of Education Monday that she doesn't think it's going to come to that.  King said that as the budget development season progresses the numbers are likely to look better as information improves, expected revenues are likely to increase, and early March annualization of 2015 budget will allow better projections on fund balance.

To hear Lansing school officials talk you would think that Albany and Governor Andrew Cuomo is waging a war against education under the banner of New York State Education Reform, and districts like Lansing in particular.  Local school officials charge that the Governor's initiatives on school taxes and teacher evaluations lump successful districts with failing ones.  Lansing School Superintendent Chris Pettograsso charged that Governor Andrew Cuomo is holding state aid hostage to force schools to conform to arbitrary requirements.

"He does not have any say over education policy," she said.  "His say comes down to the budget.  That's his power.  He has stated that he will not provide any increases to public education funding unless the Assembly approves his Board of Regents reform agenda.  He is proposing that 50% of teacher evaluations be based on student test scores and that the rest is based on local assessment and observation."

Part-time faculty members at Ithaca College have announced to their colleagues this week that they are seeking to form a union. Starting in the spring of 2014, part-time faculty professors began to create their union with Adjunct Action, a project of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) Local 200United. They look to file for their union election with the National Labor Relations Board in the coming months.

Over 200 part-time faculty professors currently teach at Ithaca College. They make up at least 30% of the faculty at Ithaca College. Many of the part-time faculty have terminal degrees and years of experiences in their given field but they are not afforded the rights of their full-time colleagues such as fair wages, professional development, access to benefits, a more influential voice in the campus community, a fair process for class reappointments, and opportunities for full-time employment.

Congressman Tom Reed (NY-23) introduced the "Defense of Property Rights Act" in response to recent adverse action taken by government actors against Southern Tier landowners.

The bill would defend private property rights by providing an option for compensation on behalf of those unfairly harmed by government action. It would also open the judicial process in a more fair and equitable way. Congressman Tom Reed released the following statement:

Senator Mike Nozzolio announced the enactment of legislation in the New York State Senate which would help keep communities safer from sexual predators.

"As Chairman of the Senate Codes Committee and former Chairman of the Crime Victims, Crime and Correction Committee, protecting our children and our communities from dangerous sexual predators is of the greatest importance to me," said Nozzolio.  "These measures will help do just that by making it easier for police, schools, and members of the community to keep track of sex offenders living in their localities, and by curbing instances where sex offenders can be present around children."

Legislature Chair Lane Delivers Annual Message, Announces 2015 Organizational Structure
In his annual message before the Tompkins County Legislature, Legislature Chair Mike Lane said Legislators "are poised to continue the People's work in a manner that is serious, progressive, and fiscally responsible" during 2015.  Challenges for the year ahead come in the context of county residents' needs—where, he said, despite a statistically low unemployment rate, many members of a "shrunken middle class" are underemployed, stuck in entry-level jobs, and struggling to meet their families' basic needs.  "We need more good-paying jobs," Mr. Lane said, along with workforce training to ensure those jobs are filled with well-qualified county residents.
 
As part of his message, Mr. Lane also spoke out against New York State for unfairly saddling counties with what he called New York State's "smoke and mirrors gimmick of real property tax cap legislation," now in its third year, while the State continues to require that State-mandated programs, such as Medicaid, be paid through counties' real property taxes, instead of the broad-based State income tax.

Lansing Board of Education President Glenn Swanson and Vice President Christine Iacobucci reported to the school board last week on the Town Transportation study that was presented December 22nd at a Lansing Planning Board meeting.  The study was conducted by Cornell Design Connect students, who developed the study over two and a half months last year.

"In that study they had some recommendations for the school district to consider," Swanson said.  "They didn't really extend the study all the way to the school campus, which in some of our opinions was an oversight."

The Lansing Town Board approved fee changes for the Parks and Recreation Department and the Codes Department Wednesday.  The entry fee for non-residents to visit Myers Park will go up by one dollar per visit, and subdivision and building permit fees have been restructured.  Deputy Supervisor Sharon Bowman said the Parks and Rec Department is also working on a season pass for non-residents who regularly visit the park.

"They're working on coming up with a season pass to Myers Park for non-residents," she said.  "Instead of having to pay $4 per entrance they would have a season pass.  They are wrestling with what that might cost, whether is should be $30 for the season or $40."