Archive: News

The New York State Senate has adopted legislation authored and introduced by State Senator Mike Nozzolio (S.459) that will save taxpayers $4 million per year by eliminating the New York Combined Ballistic Identification System (CoBIS), a tracking system for ammunition that has failed to solve a single gun crime since it was implemented 10 years ago.

“The CoBIS program is complicated, expensive to administer, and ineffective. At a time when our State must examine every taxpayer dollar it spends to see where savings can be made, it is unconscionable that millions of dollars continue to be wasted every year on a program that doesn’t work and has never worked,” said Nozzolio. “It is a certainty that the State Police could find a better use for those millions and I am pleased that my Senate colleagues have joined me in supporting the removal of the CoBIS system.”

The County Legislature will be asked to allocate more than $200,000 for preventive programs for children and families, to make up a significant shortfall in State support.  The Legislature’s budget committee, without dissent, today recommended that nearly $215,000 be appropriated from the contingent fund to replace revenue from the State budgeted for 2011, but not received, to support Community Option Preventive Services Contracts, programs operated by the Department of Social Services through several human services agencies.  About half the allocation would support services provided through the County’s Probation Department.

Svante Myrick, Ithaca Mayoral Candidate and City Alderman, will travel to Washington, D.C. Friday to meet with members of the Obama administration and attend an intimate reception with the President. Myrick is one of a small number of members of People For the American Way Foundation’s Young Elected Officials Network, a network of young progressives in elected office, who was invited to the White House to discuss important issues facing states and localities.

"When I was 16 years old, then State Senator Obama's book 'Dreams from My Father', changed my life,” said Myrick, “As a bi-racial young person, being raised by a single mother under difficult circumstances, he became my role-model. I am looking forward to thanking him for his inspiration - but I am also looking forward to the opportunity to challenge his administration on issues of social and environmental justice.  We need his leadership on same-sex marriage and we need the support of his administration to protect our environment from dangerous gas drilling."

When the County Legislature considers the future of the County’s Home Health Agency, that discussion will be based on a recommendation from its Health and Human Services Committee to proceed toward divesting of the agency and seeking another qualified provider to purchase the Agency license.  The Committee’s recommendation today came in a split 3-2 vote, with Legislators Jim Dennis, Nathan Shinagawa, and Will Burbank voting in favor, and Legislator Kathy Luz Herrera and Chair Frank Proto opposed.

Over the past two months, the committee has led a painstaking review of whether the County should continue to operate the Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA) through the Health Department, now that New York State has eliminated its financial support, whether the local property tax subsidy needed to operate the agency can be reduced or eliminated, or if the Agency should be sold or transferred to another home health provider.

On Saturday June 11, 2011 at approximately 1:22 AM deputies responded to the 1600 block of East Shore Drive for a report of a man down in the roadway. Deputies discovered Rick O. Shauger, age 38, of Lansing deceased at the scene. Shauger was taken to the Onondaga County Medical Examiner's Office for an autopsy to determine the cause of death.

Initial interviews with witnesses have been completed and it is alleged that Shauger was a front seat passenger of a motor vehicle that was traveling North on East Shore Drive when he voluntarily exited the vehicle while it was moving. The New York State Police, the Tompkins County Medical Examiner and the Onondaga County Medical Examiner's Office are assisting the Sheriff's Office.

It started in 2009 when the Town of Lansing asked the Village of Lansing to pay what it actually costs to plow the Village streets in the winter.  At that time Village Mayor Donald Hartill said that the Village could plow its own streets for almost $17,000 less, and the Town no longer plows village roads.  Hartill then began studying the rest of the town budget.  Last November he said that of the $700,000 the Town levies villagers, they only receive about $100,000 worth of services.  He began studying options up to and including the Village seceding from the Town.  Hartill reported Monday to Village Trustees on progress he has made in researching the Village's options.

"I'm hoping we can come to some arrangement that makes sense," Hartill says.  "I really don't want to go through that (secession) process.  It's very painful.  We're never sure of success, and it will certainly generate a lot of problems.  On the other hand I'm enough of a fiscal conservative that it's important to be responsible.  It's just being responsible."

County officials today continued their process of gathering information on potential options, as they consider whether the County should continue to operate its Certified Home Health Agency (CHHA), now that New York State has eliminated its financial support for such agencies.    The County must decide whether the local property tax subsidy needed to operate the agency can be reduced or eliminated, or if the Agency should be sold or transferred to another home health provider.

The Legislature’s Health and Human Services Committee heard the perspective on CHHA operations from representatives of a non-governmental home health agency, Home Care of Rochester (HCR).  HCR president Mark Maxim and Elizabeth Zicari, HCR’s Vice President of Clinical Services, were unable to attend a panel discussion on program options sponsored by the committee last month, and the committee scheduled the session to provide an opportunity for the committee to ask questions.  HCR, a private, for-profit, employee-owned company, has acquired several county CHHAs, and answered some questions related to their experience with such transitions.

Legislature Sets 2012 Budget Guidelines

County departments and agencies are being directed to prepare 2012 budget scenarios showing how they would reduce spending by 7.8% and 11.2%, as a starting point in the 2012 County budget process.  The fiscal targets, approved by the Legislature without dissent (Legislators Peter Stein and Kathy Luz Herrera were excused), are recommended by both County Administrator Joe Mareane and the Legislature’s budget committee as the reductions needed to achieve the 2012 tax levy goal set by the Legislature. 

The Legislature has directed that the County Administrator deliver a tentative budget that shows what can be supported by a 2% tax levy increase (which would require a $4.5 million total reduction in locally controlled spending), and by a recommended tax levy increase of 5.4% (requiring a more than $3 million reduction).  Fiscal targets represent the maximum amount of general revenue spending authority that a department may request without initiating an over-target request as part of the budget process.

A predictable stream of federal funding to replace aging buses is critical to Tompkins Consolidated Area Transit, Inc.’s ability to serve a public and a local economy that is becoming more and more dependent on public transit, TCAT, Inc. General Manager Joe Turcotte told congressional leaders Thursday.

Turcotte was one of 10 regional transportation industry experts that testified on Thursday, May 24, before a U.S. House Committee on Transportation & Infrastructure listening session in Cortland, N.Y., The listening session was headed by Committee Chairman U.S. Rep. John Mica, R Florida and hosted by U.S. Rep. Richard Hanna, R,C,I-Barneveld. Panelist included representatives from a variety of transportation industries, including paving contractors, engineers, a major bus manufacturer and truckers. The audience of about 50 people included elected officials, other regional transportation leaders and a representative from the United Auto Workers who said it “is in labor’s interest” to participate in the discussion as many workers in transportation industries are unionized.

New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli’s shareholder resolution seeking greater disclosure of the risks associated with hydraulic fracturing (‘fracking’) garnered support from investors at Carrizo Oil’s annual meeting last week. The resolution received 43.7 percent of the vote, according to a company filing released today. DiNapoli filed the resolution as trustee of the $140.6 billion New York State Common Retirement Fund (Fund), which owns 324,994 Carrizo shares worth an estimated $11.1 million.

“We’ve seen what happens when companies sacrifice safety for short-term profits,” DiNapoli said. “This vote was a call for safer, sustainable earnings from our investments. Natural gas is a crucial part of the nation’s energy supply, but it has to be extracted the right way.”

New York State Senator Mike Nozzolio is co-sponsoring legislation that was introduced in the State Senate today to provide greater protection and disclosure to employees of facilities where dangerous juvenile delinquents and youthful offenders are placed. The legislation is known as “Renee’s Law”, for 24-year-old Renee Greco, who was brutally murdered two years ago while supervising troubled teenagers at a group home.

“As a co-sponsor of Renee’s Law, I believe this legislation is critical to protecting the safety of the men and women who work in New York State Office of Children and Family Services (OCFS) facilities and preventing future tragedies from occurring,” said  Nozzolio . “By giving staff at these facilities access to the records of the youths in their care, this legislation will reform our juvenile justice system. I commend Senator Catharine Young and Senator George Maziarz for introducing this legislation to honor Renee Greco’s memory by ensuring the circumstances that lead to her death never happen again.”

As the Lansing Town Center idea has been gaining traction, different people have been working on key elements that will insure it is successful.  The Lansing Town Center committee met with residents and came up with conceptual plans for the center.  Its chair, Councilwoman Kathy Miller is consulting with the NYS Department Of Transportation to find grants for building sidewalks.  Town officials are pursuing a new sewer option, the Lansing Recreational Pathways Committee opened a trail last winter, and the Economic Development committee has been exploring ways to attract businesses to the site.  A key element of this effort is the formation of a Lansing Town Center Incentive Zone, which, if accepted, would provide tax abatements to help developers bring businesses and not-for-profits to the town center.

"It's tough enough to develop anyplace now, because of all the rules and regulations and restrictions," Lansing Economic Development Committee Chair Andy Sciarabba says.  "Especially in a community that hasn't got all that large a population base that's been struggling to entice developers to our community.  It's a way to say we want you to develop here in this area."