Archive: Opinions

If I understood her correctly, Lansing's County Legislator Pat Pryor told the Lansing Town Board Wednesday that it would cost more than a 5% rise in the tax levy to support state mandated programs.  Not unmandated things -- just the mandates.  We won't be able to have local programs, because there won't be any money for them.  That means the State will have effectively taken over our local governments.  It's a coup of sorts.

I'm not 100% sure I understood that correctly.  But I did understand the 2% property tax cap that the State is likely to impose on local municipalities.

So if I understood her correctly, the State wants to require Tompkins County to spend more than it will allow the County to collect.  And there will be consequences for not doing so.  By the way, that all applies to the school district and the Town and other authorities that collect property tax.

I happen to be all for the tax cap.  But isn't there one person in the State Legislature that can do arithmetic?  You can't have a tax cap without reducing or removing unfunded mandates.  It doesn't work.  You can't make communities collect 2 and force them to spend 5.  Geesh, this isn't calculus.  It's arithmetic.

These are the same geniuses who made New York into the highest taxed state in the union, and who put the State into 13 billion dollars of debt.  And now that Governor Cuomo has twisted their arms they're the same people who are going to take the credit for reducing New York's debt.

Our local governments in Tompkins County seem to understand their numbers.  In my opinion some overtax, some don't.  Some provide more value than others for the taxes they levy.  Some listen to constituents better than others when determining what they should be funding.  But they all seem to understand how to do arithmetic.  Even our school system with recurring budget gaps of two-plus million dollars has managed to operate in the black.

I can only conclude that we are doing something very, very wrong on the state level.  And I have a plan.

From now on we must require anyone running for state office to take a second grade math test, and candidates who score less than 95% will not be permitted to run.  Further, as part of their financial disclosure they must prove beyond any doubt that they have managed to balance their checkbook to the penny every month for the two years prior to election day.  This would apply equally to incumbents and new candidates.

On top of that each and every candidate should make a chart using Sharpies and poster board showing all the state mandates that are imposed on the communities they represent, including the costs.  And a summary of the total costs next to the amount each government has collected that year.

Then they should be required to do that arithmetic to see whether income equals or exceeds expenditures on mandated programs.  And only then should they be 1) allowed to run, and 2) to develop their campaign platforms.

How anyone in Albany can imagine imposing a tax cap without mandate so-called reform I don't understand.  And by the way, it's not reform.  It's getting rid of the things, or paying for them if Albany really thinks localities must implement them.  That's number 3 for me -- candidates for state office should be required to promise not to say unless they pay.  Unfunded mandates should be made illegal.

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