Archive: News

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton (D/WF-Tompkins/Cortland) was in Pennsylvania last week touring Bradford county one of the major centers of hydraulic fracturing in that state. Lifton spoke to residents in Montrose, Dimock, Towanda, and Le Roy whose lives were affected by fracking.

“My trip today, my second trip to Pennsylvania, was a sobering experience.  I talked with a number of people who have had their health and drinking water, irreparably damaged and their property rendered nearly worthless,” said Lifton.

Meeting in special session, the Legislature approved an emergency appropriation of $26,100 in contingency funds to enable chemical treatment to eradicate the invasive plant species Hydrilla from the Cayuga Inlet.  The vote was a unanimous 11-0, with Legislators Kathy Luz Herrera, Leslyn McBean-Clairborne, Frank Proto, and Brian Robison excused.

The Tompkins County Soil and Water Conservation District is working with the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC), the New York State Canal Corporation, the City of Ithaca, and Tompkins County to address the problem, and it has been determined that the most effective way to eradicate Hydrilla is to apply the herbicide endothal this year, with follow-up applications during the next five years, at least.

At the Lansing Democratic Caucus Michael Koplinka-Loehr seemed surprised when he was nominated for to run for a seat on the Lansing Town Board.  But he jumped in with both feet and is running a campaign that has already sent out a mailer asking for voters' support.

He and his wife Carrie moved to Lansing only a year ago, but he has lived and participated in Tompkins County politics and community for years.  They have four grown children.

Koplinka-Loehr served on the Tompkins County legislature for 12 years, chairing the legislature in 2008 and 2009.

After a surprise decision to lower the Town of Lansing tax rate by 44.15% in a preliminary draft of the 2012 budget last week, the Town Board met again Wednesday to iron out concerns about making such a drastic cut in taxes.  Three board members said that they will be more comfortable with a 33% cut, still a significant number.  Town Supervisor Scott Pinney and Councilman Robert Cree defended the number, saying that major reductions in expenses have not been matched by tax cuts, even though the tax rate has gone down for the past four years.

"It's a controversial number," Pinney said.  "It's a huge number.  There's a lot of concern by not only the residents, but by the Town Board itself."

Assemblywoman Barbara Lifton spoke at the 2011 New York State County Clerks’ Association annual meeting in Lake Placid, New York today. In her speech to about 150 people, Lifton outlined her motivation for her fight against hydraulic fracturing, and a number of bills she had introduced around the topic of gas leasing. Two of her bills, one of which would require that executed leases be filed with in 30 days and another which would require the signatures of both the drilling company and the property owner, are of particular interest to the clerks.

"We should, as a state, establish policies that protect and support our citizens, not ones that confuse and obfuscate the leasing process, aiding only the out-of-state gas companies, with severe economic and quality-of-life costs to New Yorkers," she said.

Kathy Miller is the Democratic candidate for Lansing Town Supervisor.  Miller won the nomination at the Lansing Democratic Caucus in July, beating current Supervisor Scott Pinney and Deputy Supervisor Connie Wilcox for the Democratic nod.  On November 8th Lansing voters will choose between Miller and Wilcox, who is running as an Independent.

Miller and her husband Bill have lived in Lansing for 25 years.  They have three children, Stephen, Julia, and Andrew.  Miller recently retired from her job at Cornell University where she worked in Clinical Sciences at the Vet School in the field of molecular genetics studying genetic disease in animals.

Connie Wilcox is running for Lansing Town Supervisor as an Independent.  We caught up to her last week to ask abut her candidacy and how she would steer Lansing if elected.

Wilcox has lived in Lansing all her life.  She grew up in North Lansing, where her father was a founder of the North Lansing Fire Department.  Her mother has been a force of nature (and current president) of the North Lansing Auxiliary, and Wilcox is currently treasurer.  She is married to Ed Wilcox, and has two sons, Scott and Charlie Purcell, and two grandsons, Daniel and Alex.

Representatives of several human services organizations urged County Legislators to preserve funding for the county’s most vulnerable, as they consider the County budget for 2012.

About 35 people attended the Legislature’s annual Community Budget Forum on the County’s tentative budget currently under review by the Legislature, and nearly half of them spoke.  Among them were representatives of agencies including Loaves and Fishes, the Child Development Council, the Women’s Opportunity Center, Cooperative Extension’s Rural Youth Services program, and the Community Dispute Resolution Center, who said the demand for their services is increasing in today’s economy while sources of support are dwindling, endangering the social safety net.

The state Department of Health (DOH) overpaid nursing homes by an estimated $42 million in Medicaid funding over a 44-month period because many care providers are not collecting money from their clients’ income sources as required, and local governments are failing to enforce that provision, according to an audit released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“Medicaid is a costly program, but DOH continues to throw money out the window,” DiNapoli said. “We first reported on this problem ten years ago. It is crucial for DOH to fix the areas of concern identified in our report now. We risk losing millions of dollars in future Medicaid overpayments if these longstanding problems go unchecked.”

State Senator Mike Nozzolio today called on the New York State Department of Motor Vehicles to immediately abandon its plan to eliminate vision test requirements for drivers renewing their licenses. Nozzolio was joined by Don Shepherd of Seneca Falls, a former Department of Transportation employee who nearly died from injuries he sustained when he was struck by a vision-impaired driver while doing construction in a work zone.

“Tragic accidents like the one that happened to Mr. Shepherd remind us why virtually every state in the Nation has always required periodic vision exams for drivers. Eliminating these tests presents an unconscionable risk for every person who uses our roadways,” said Nozzolio.

This week the Lansing Star begins in-depth election coverage.  We're starting this week with interviews of the two Lansing Supervisor candidates, Kathy Miller and Connie Wilcox.

The Star asks opponents the same questions to give readers the best chance for evaluating the candidates.  All the interviews and other 2011 election articles are searchable so you can go back and review the candidates any time between now and the November 8th election.  Look for this link near the top of the main Lansing Star pages, just under the box where you can subscribe to the weekly email reminder:

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Lansing Town Board members agreed on a preliminary budget Monday that could potentially lower the town tax rate by 44.15%.  Town Supervisor Scott Pinney says the budget meets all the departments' requests except for a loader and a pickup truck requested by the Highway Department.

"This is our preliminary budget," Pinney said.  "The only part that is actually official is the wage increase for elected officials.  We will have more meetings to discuss all parts of the budget.  Most likely that rate will change."