Archive: Opinions

Did you know that Tompkins County has the highest poverty rate in the 23rd Congressional District?  Did you know our county has a higher poverty rate than New York County (Manhattan)?  And that the Tompkins County poverty rate (20.6%) is higher than the national poverty rate of 15.6% and higer than the New York State average of 15.9%?

Wow, I didn't see that coming.  We always hear that Tompkins County is a wealthy county surrounded by upstate counties that are struggling.  We also hear that because of the county's liberal bent and plentiful social programs, people are attracted here to take advantage of those benefits.  How do the statistics make sense?  Could it be that wealth attracts poverty?  What are the communities in Tompkins County doing wrong?  What should they be doing right?

Congressman Tom Reed's office provided statistics to journalists Monday, broken down by counties in his NY 23rd Congressional District Monday.  The numbers they provided shattered any stereotypes I may have had about where poverty lives in New York State.  So I followed a lnk they provided to the New York State Community Action Association Web site, where they have a state-wide poverty breakdown by county.

Tioga County has the lowest poverty rate in the 23rd district at 9.1% overall.  Here in Tompkins County 18.2% of children live at the poverty level.  10.8% of adults over 25 years old live in poverty.  5.4% of senior citizens 65 years and older live in poverty.  16.1% of white people, 50.4% of African Americans and 34.9% of Hispanic/Latinos live in poverty.  38% of households with female heads in Tompkins County are at the poverty level.

24.9% of Tompkins County residents with no degree, 12.5 of those with a high school degree, 11.1% of those with an Associates degree, and 8.2% of those with a Bachelors or higher degree live in poverty.  That shows that your parents were right when they told you to get your college degree if you wanted more job opportunities open to you.  If you have a Bachelors degree or higher, though you can potentially do better in New York City where only 6.6% of people with those degrees live in poverty.  Of course there are a lot more people in New York County than Tompkins.  Those percentages mean that 47,447 New York City dwellers and 2,419 of Tompkins County residents with Bachelors degrees, Masters, or PhDs live in poverty.

According to a Tompkins County Health Department 'Community Health Assessment 2013–2017', "Poverty data for families is more likely to demonstrate the needs of less transient residents than will data that includes non-family households. This is especially relevant in a "college town," where a large population of students working part time can skew the poverty rate downward. In fact, a 2013 study documents a steep drop in Tompkins County's overall poverty rate when students are factored out: 21% for all people in Tompkins County, and 11.5% when students not living with relatives are excluded. For Ithaca city, the poverty rate changes from 48.3% for all people to 23.3% for all people excluding students not living with relatives."

But wouldn't you think that with colleges like Cornell and Ithaca College the poverty rate in the county would be less than counties with state colleges, where people with lower incomes traditionally find more affordable?  I looked up the poverty rate at some of the counties with SUNY schools.  Oswego 18.5%.  Otsego 16.4%.  Chautauqua 19.4%.  Clinton 15.2%.  There doesn't seem to be a pattern of higher than average poverty due to college students.

So what's the deal with Tompkins County?  I have believed that our county property tax rates are too high.  Yet a 2003 analysis of the top and bottom tax rates in New York state lists Ithaca as #45 highest, and Groton as #12 in the Southern Tier.  Does this mean that the common wisdom among some people here that people flock to Tompkins County to take advantage of handouts is false?

To me, the most relevant piece of all this is that over one fifth of people in our county live in poverty.  That is too much.  It should give the County Legislature and all the communities under its umbrella pause.  Across the county, maybe it is time for Legislators to do more to encourage affordable housing.  The City Of Ithaca should pay attention to merchants when they complain that the city's ever increasingly tangled parking policies hurt business, because if those businesses thrive they provide more jobs, and that is the best way to reduce poverty.  Here in Lansing, for the same reason, it may be time to stop talking about new business parks and start building them.

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