Archive: News

Calling its passage "Critical for jobs," Rep. Tom Reed today voted in support of the House package of tax provision extenders.  The bill, which renews various tax provisions which expired or were set to expire, passed the House on a bipartisan vote.

"It is unfair that businesses and taxpayers are left in the dark guessing what tax policy will be," Reed observed. "Businesses and farmers are left to make long-term decisions on investing in new research and jobs without knowing what the landscape will look like.  These provisions, particularly the Research and Development credit, are critical to creating jobs making the innovative products of tomorrow."

Dryden, NY -- In the spirit of the fall season and the close of the public comment period for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s clean water rule, 25 community members gathered at Bacchus Brewing Company on November 22 to celebrate New York’s iconic waterways.

The event, hosted by Environment New York, called together advocates, environmentalists, political leaders and community members alike, just one week after the close of the public comment period. Nearly a decade ago, polluters and developers secured a loophole in the Clean Water Act that leaves more than 55% of New York’s streams vulnerable to unchecked pollution.

Lansing School District residents will vote on a $6,450,000 capital project Tuesday, December 9th.  School Business Administrator Mary June King the SMART (Security, Mechanical, Architectural, Reconstruction, Technology) project will include work in almost all school campus buildings, and will not cost taxpayers any additional taxes.

"People have a hard struggle getting their mind around how it can not cost us anything additional," said King in a Board Of Education meeting last week.  "It's not costing us nothing.  It's costing us something.  It's just not costing us more dollars than we're currently spending."

Snow plowing and road paving are the kinds of things you expect of a Highway Department.  The Lansing Highway Department excels in those.  But a positive attitude, pride in their work, and a willingness to try a variety of things has involved the Highway Department in a number of projects that aren't exactly connected to Lansing's more than 93 miles of road.  And that work saves hundreds of thousands of taxpayer dollars that otherwise would have been outsourced to contractors.

"We've had may highway superintendents ask us how we get our guys to do all that kind of stuff," says Highway Superintendent Jack French.  "They say, 'There's no way my guys would do that.'  We just ask them.  They enjoy doing different things, and we're lucky.  We've got the guys that are knowledgable.   We've got plumbers and maintenance people who have done it in the past and they enjoy doing it."

Legislature Adopts 2015 Tompkins County Budget
After two months of budget deliberations, the Tompkins County Legislature adopted the County's 2015 budget and its capital program for the next five years.  Although there was discussion, the Legislature ended up making no changes to the recommended budget before it was passed.

The $180.8 million budget, with $83.5 million in local dollar spending increases the County tax levy by 2.5% and decreases the countywide average tax rate by 0.45%.  The recommended tax rate of $6.86 per thousand represents an increase of $8.67 for the median-valued $165,000 home.  Since the increase is below the adjusted 3.14% State property tax cap, the amount will be returned to the homeowner under the State's new property tax freeze law.  For 2015, the County solid waste fee will also decrease by $4.00, to $52.00 per household.

You don't have to be fracked to get fracked.   Millions of New Yorkers are in the bulls-eye of a burgeoning oil and natural gas transport/delivery infrastructure currently under construction across the Empire State.  But most of us don't even know it...yet.

"All companies in the oil and gas industry agree that the name of the game right now is rolling out as much infrastructure as quickly as possible," said David Slottje, an internationally renowned environmental lawyer and activist at an all-day conference at Ithaca College examining the industrial build-out associated with fracking.  The conference was convened by the Coalition to Protect Communities from Fracking's Collateral Damage.

The Village of Lansing has an opening in our Department of Public Works for a Motor Equipment Operator.  A valid NYS Commercial Driver's License, Class A or B, is required.  Applications for the position must be completed online at http://www.tompkinscivilservice.org. A complete job description can also be found online. Compensation is $17-$21/hr depending on experience. All applications must be submitted by December 1^st.   Interviews will start 12/4/14 for the most qualified applicants.

The Planning, Energy, and Environmental Quality Committee of the Tompkins County Legislature today responded enthusiastically to a presentation from EnergizeNY Finance, the entity established by New York State to operate the State's property assessed clean energy (PACE) program.

The PACE program, approved by the State in 2009, offers low-cost long-term financing for energy efficiency and renewable energy projects, supporting up to the entire project cost, for owners of non-residential properties, with repayments collected by the municipality through a charge on the tax bill.

Year-to-date state tax collections of $38.4 billion were $14.4 million lower than projected in the most recent Financial Plan update, but more than $1.6 billion above initial projections from the Enacted Budget Financial Plan. The state has also collected nearly $3.5 billion from financial settlements since the budget was enacted, according to the October cash report released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

"The state's cash position remains strong from higher than initially projected tax collections and billions in extraordinary settlement revenue," DiNapoli said. "As the 2015-16 Executive Budget is prepared, it is important to separate non-recurring from recurring resources and use both responsibly to maximize the benefits for New Yorkers. Recent improvements in the state's financial position should not be compromised by increasing our dependence on non-recurring resources."

Last week's public hearing on the 2015 Town of Lansing budget didn't go exactly as planned.  In the eleventh hour the Board rehashed a few items, and the budget was not voted on as expected.  An issue of whether municipal budget planning was adequately reflected in the $4.6 million budget was a sore spot when Former Tompkins County Legislator Pat Pryor, the only person to speak in the public hearing, challenged the board to reconsider the budget before passing it.  Pryor asked whether Town Board members had taken advantage of budget training available from the New York Organization Of Towns, and charged the budget doesn't reflect it if they did.

"Municipal budgeting is not a matter of common sense," she chided.  "It is different from any other kind of budget in the county.  Legal requirements and constraints are complex and every elected official who helps to craft a town budget should take advantage of the training that is available.  In the municipal budget training you could learn that a fund balance policy provides a framework to help guide budgetary decisions in multi year plans, helps, insure that an adequate fund balance is available and can be used to develop and amend multi year capital and operational plans.  I see no recognition in this budget of the importance of a fund balance policy."

The Tompkins County Legislature tonight invited comment on the 2015 Recommended County Budget and the Capital Plan for the next five years, as amended by the Legislature.

Monday's hearing lasted less than 15 minutes, most of that involving a review of the budget process and the basics of the budget.

The $180.8 million amended budget, with $83.5 million in local dollar spending would increase the County tax levy by 2.5% and decrease the countywide average tax rate by 0.45%.  The recommended tax rate of $6.86 per thousand is about a penny higher than in the Administrator's budget, representing an increase of $8.67 for the median-valued $165,000 home.  Since the increase would be below the adjusted 3.14% State property tax cap, the amount would be returned to the homeowner under the new property tax freeze law.  For 2015, the County solid waste fee would also decrease by $4.00, to $52.00 per household.

Solar Tompkins is meeting its ambitious goal of doubling the total deployment of residential solar power in a single year!  355 Families in Tompkins County have now signed contracts that will add 2.6 MW of electrical generating capacity from residential Solar PV.  These households will start saving money right away, will enrich the community by generating wealth home by home instead of paying for imported power, and are creating a boom in the solar installation business that has resulted in at least 22.5 new, permanent, full-time, living-wage jobs created in our communities in just the last 6 months.

Solar Tompkins is a volunteer-based non-profit group with the mission of accelerating the transition to affordable, renewable power. Jonathan Comstock, chair of the Solar Tompkins Board of Directors, says "Solar Tompkins plays several roles, but the biggest two have been education on the details of how residential solar works, and bringing confidence to consumers who aren't sure how to shop in this new market place.  To do this, the program reached out to every town in the County, holding 34 community meetings and more than 25 other educational events during the summer of 2014".