Archive: Opinions

At Wednesday's budget meeting Town Councilwoman Kathy Miller noted that Town taxes aren't what's really hurting taxpayers.  School and county taxes are much higher.  She said she wants the Town to do what it can to help taxpayers with that larger burden.  I think there is one obvious thing.  Get new business into Lansing as soon as possible.

While town council members rightly said that they can't control school taxes, it is equally true that the school board can't control its revenues.  Certainly the Town can't control school revenues either, but it does have the ability to influence them significantly by doing everything it can to accelerate the Town Center initiative and get businesses here that pay town taxes while putting less stress on town resources than homeowners do.

Let's face it.  Developers want to locate where there are roads, sewer, and other infrastructure rather than in an empty field that may some day have those things.  Wouldn't you?  Especially at a time when the Town is flush, it should use some of the money to put those things in.  It could recover the expense later because the town would be able to charge more for the lots when developers do come.

Taxpayers are already straining mightily to pay their taxes in New York.  In Lansing the travails of the AES Cayuga power plant, the town's largest taxpayer, are straining homeowners even more.  With a negotiated valuation that is significantly dropping the plant is paying less taxes each year.  It is currently for sale, and many fear that the coal-burning plant will close altogether in an economy that increasingly favors green energy.  School officials say that taxpayers had to pick up 3.2% ($525,250) of this summer's tax rate rise because of this year's drop in AES tax payment.

For a long time AES was the giant egg in Lansing's basket.  Now it is dwindling, and may go entirely away.  Most people agree that now is the time to put a large number of smaller eggs in that basket.  That means a lot of new businesses.  The Economic Development Committee has recommended an industrial park with ready-made infrastructure be developed by the Town as part of the Town Center initiative that will also include retail businesses, professional offices, and housing.

Let's say all that happens in the shortest possible time frame, say five years.  That allows time for the sewer to be completed, for businesses to become interested, go through the planning process and build, and everything else.

If that happens it's still going to be 15 years before Lansing taxing authorities, including the school district, town, fire district, and library see the full value of the taxes those businesses will generate, because many of them will apply for and receive 10 year PILOT agreements in which they pay a small amount of property tax the first year, which gradually rises to the full value over a ten year period.

We need the PILOTs to attract them here.  That is a good thing.  But we need the revenue sooner than we can actually get it to make up for ASES Cayuga, the lousy economy, ridiculous health care costs, and everything else.

Tompkins County Legislators have made it clear that they will exceed not only the so-called tax cap, but also the cost of living rise.  School officials have been talking about exceeding the tax cap next year because 80% of votes on this year's budget were for it.

When politicians talk about tax relief in New York they are mostly blowing smoke that just about everyone sees through any more.  This year especially, because of the proposed tax cut, paid debt, and generally great stewardship of taxpayer monies, Lansing Town officials are a dramatic exception to that characterization.  And that puts them in a unique position to make a difference that will benefit taxpayers as they struggle to keep up with all their taxes.

I think the Town should do whatever it takes to come up with a street plan for the town center land as soon as the final payment can be made to the State to lift restrictions that have, until now, prevented development there.  Then it should put in the streets, with sewer, water, lighting, and any other infrastructure that will make it attractive to developers.

The Town is doing a very good job so far.  A Town Center Incentive Zone is almost officially in place, a general plan for the town center has been roughed out, a proposal for an industrial park is in the works, Lansing Market, the new Xtramart, and Crossroads Bar & Grill have jump-started the commercial piece.

In my opinion the Town could upgrade 'very good' to 'great' by putting in the infrastructure now to attract developers with shovel-ready lots (and recovering the costs when developers come), further streamlining the planning process, and even actively going after businesses to move here.

That is not to say development should be done haphazardly.  It should be done right.  Doing it right is more important than doing it quickly.  But arguably most of the steps toward doing it right have already been taken, or are in process now.

In short, Town officials don't control the school tax, but they do control the circumstances that could lower it for homeowners by actively encouraging business growth in the town.  The Town has extra money right now.  Why not use some of it to effectively lower school taxes by increasing the schools' revenue stream, thereby relieving homeowners of an increasingly unsustainable burden?  At, eventually, no cost to the town?  Or even a reasonable cost -- wouldn't that be worth it?

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