Archive: News

Tompkins County Legislature Chair Martha Robertson has been appointed by New York State Association of Counties (NYSAC) President Thomas Santulli to serve on a special NYSAC Presidential Commission on the State Takeover of Medicaid.  The Commission’s first meeting will take place Tuesday, August 10 in Albany.

State legislation passed in June requires the New York State Commissioner of Health to report to the Legislature by November 30 with a plan for the state to take over the administrative costs of Medicaid. Under the legislation, the takeover is scheduled to begin April 1, 2011, assuming sufficient state resources are available. 

Briefing the Legislature’s budget committee Monday, County Administrator Joe Mareane cautioned that the upcoming process of developing the County’s 2011 budget will be extremely difficult.  Mareane reported departments and agencies have included nearly $4.5 million in over target requests as part of their budget submissions which he is currently reviewing—requests that seek restoration of items they were forced to cut to meet the directed 6.9% reduction in target spending.

Richard HannaRichard Hanna and former New York City Mayor Ed Koch are on a mission to reform New York.

Koch is in Syracuse today and has traveled through Upstate New York this week highlighting the efforts of his independent and nonpartisan reform group – NY Uprising. One issue NY Uprising is calling for is an independent, nonpartisan commission to draw redistricting in the state next year.

Absentee ballots for the September 14 Primary Election are now available at the Tompkins County Board of Elections. Applications for absentee ballots may be obtained from the Board office or downloaded from www.votetompkins.com. The last day to postmark an application for an absentee ballot is September 7.

The last day for new voters to register and be eligible to vote in this election is August 20. Only Democratic, Republican and Conservative voters are eligible to vote in this Primary. Per New York State law, a party change requested at this time of year will not go into effect until after the November General Election.

At the end of June Richard Hanna's campaign for U.S. Congress charged that incumbent Michael Arcuri voted several times to save Rep. Charles Rangel, D-Harlem, the former chairman of the powerful Ways and Means Committee. He said Arcuri voted against censuring Rangel in July 2008, and that Arcuri said he was "withholding judgment" on 13 charges of ethical violations committed by Rep. Charles Rangel, D-Harlem.

Legislature Approves Reserve Funding for Health Insurance Consortium

The Legislature, by unanimous vote (Legislator Dooley Kiefer was excused) authorized $500,000 in reserve contributions for the Greater Tompkins County Municipal Health Insurance Consortium, the County’s share of a $1.22 million rate stabilization reserve required by the State Insurance Department, and authorized immediate payment to the Consortium from the County’s fringe account.

The initial capitalization by the Consortium’s 13 participating municipalities, projected to be repaid from Consortium reserves within the next five years, is considered a significant step in making the long-discussed inter-municipal health insurance consortium reality.  Based on its review of local claims data, the State Insurance Department recently agreed to reduce its reserve requirements by about $1 million, provided that the Rate Stabilization reserve funds are deposited with the Consortium at the time it begins operations.  The Consortium, through which 13 member municipalities would pool their employee health insurance coverage, is projected to save local taxpayers over $900,000 a year in health costs.

County officials expressed deep concern about a proposed State property tax cap, under review by the State Legislature.  The proposal would cap increases in local property taxes by either 4% or 20% above the rate of inflation, whichever is less, with no State mandate relief. 

County Administrator Joe Mareane warned legislators the cap, if enacted, would produce a “catastrophic” effect on counties.  It would limit the County’s levy increase to just 1.3% and would force the County to cut next year’s budget by an additional $1.5 million, beyond the more than $2 million currently projected, as the County strives to meet the 5% preliminary tax levy goal set by the County Legislature earlier this year.  Increased pension expense alone  increases the tax levy by 4%.

Mareane stated, “I know the effect of the budget as we have currently structured it, with a 5% levy target with significant reductions in spending.  The thought of having to make up another $1.5 million in cuts is pretty catastrophic, adding another 4% beyond the 7% cut we have already had to make.”

Calling pursuit of the cap “stunning,” Legislature Chair Martha Robertson maintained that “without mandate relief, this is hypocrisy,” noting that Medicaid expense alone accounts for 29% of the County’s tax levy.  Legislator Mike Lane stressed that the tax cap does nothing to close the State’s budget gap, while hurting counties and other municipalities. 

Legislator Nathan Shinagawa said the proposal amounts to “bait and switch—what scam artists do” and shows that the Governor and state government “utterly irresponsible and utterly out of touch.”  Legislator Pam Mackesey agreed, saying the action confirms that the government has “no attachment of what it’s doing to people’s lives,” likening it to “a terrible game” which “starves counties and municipalities and destroys the safety net,” while failing to address the state’s fundamental problems.

As of now, the State Senate has approved the cap by an overwhelming margin, with the Assembly adjourning without taking up the bill.

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Jennifer Lynn Jayne is a newly commissioned 2nd Lt. US Air Force, Nurse Corp.  She is a 2005 graduate of Lansing High School and a June 2010 graduate of Elmira College receiving a Bachelor of Science in Nursing.  During her senior year at Elmira College, Jennifer served as Wing Commander for her Air Force ROTC unit. 

On April 23, 2010, she received a General David Petraeus Award for Excellence presented by General Petraeus at a recognition ceremony at Cornell University.    Jennifer will report for active duty at Lackland Air Base in San Antonio, TX in September 2010.  Jayne is the daughter of Richard Jayne of Lansing and Charmayne Jayne of Groton.

Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoliNew York’s 1,246 town and village justice courts heard more than two million cases and collected $246 million in revenues in 2009, according to a report on the Justice Court Fund released today by New York State Comptroller Thomas P. DiNapoli.

“New York’s justice courts process millions of cases and collect hundreds of millions in revenue each year,” DiNapoli said. “That’s a lot of money.  But New Yorkers don’t know much about these units of local government. My office reviews justice court reports, administers the Justice Court Fund and conducts periodic audits to ensure proper controls are in place to protect public monies from fraud and abuse.  My goal is to make government on every level completely transparent.”

Washington, DC—U.S. Rep. Michael A. Arcuri (NY-24) successfully offered an amendment that would help local communities streamline government and foster economic development during the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure’s consideration of the Economic Revitalization and Innovation Act of 2010 (H.R. 5897) this afternoon. 

The amendment, which was adopted unanimously, would amend the Economic Development Administration’s (EDA) Technical Assistance Grant (TAG) Program to explicitly authorize EDA to make grants to counties and municipal governments to develop or implement government efficiency assessments.

When you have an emergency all you have to do is dial 911.  But what does a municipality do when a community emergency arises?  Village of Lansing Trustees approved an emergency preparedness plan Monday that essentially boils down to the same thing: when Mayor Donald Hartill declares a state of emergency in the village he'll dial 911 to bring County, State, and/or Federal agencies into play.

"We should understand that the Mayor has to notify the County," says Village Trustee John O'Neill.  "You can call them with 911.  They will get that call to the Incident Commander.  So we don't have to worry about all the numbers (of various departments)."