Archive: Opinions

The dramatic reduction in the AES Cayuga power plant's value as if Jack dropped the goose that lays the golden eggs on his way down from the beanstalk.  No golden goose can survive a fall like that.  The original PILOT called for a gradual rise in an already generous boodle of taxes from the plant.  A year later the course reversed.  Like the Katy Perry lyric, 'Tax revenue's up then you're down' and 'Got a case of tax bipolar'.

Lansing has a terrible situation on its hands with the AES Cayuga PILOT renegotiation that will value the plant at half its 2011 taxable value by 2014.  The Lansing School District will be the biggest loser with over $1 million of revenue evaporating over that four year period.  At a meeting to collect public comments on the situation Lansing Resident Ed Leonard plaintively asked, "Where will we get the money to pay the extra taxes?  It's not right to put the plant down."

That about sums up what's happening.  In the song you know that couple isn't going to last.  Katy is hooked on the guy, but she's owning up that he isn't doing it for her.  She knows it's over but can't quite leave.

Public hearings are usually poorly attended, so I wasn't surprised to find 15 people there Wednesday, at least half of them from the IDA or the negotiating team.  Few people made comments that can guide the IDA when they vote to make the renegotiated agreement official later this month.  It was as if Lansing has realized there is nothing we can do, accepted it, and now holds its breath as it awaits the school tax bill this coming summer.

In Lansing we know AES Cayuga has been carrying the community for years.  Now it can't whether we like it or not.  We're hooked on the extra revenue it has been provided because of the great things the schools, the town, the county has been able to do with it.  Now we're hooked on those great things.  But will we realistically be able to afford them?

So what do we do?

The only thing we can do is attract new business to Lansing and build on that to help alleviate some of the tax burden from homeowners.  Our local officials are scurrying to do that right now.  But let's be real -- it takes time, and it's going to take a whole heck of a lot of new local businesses to generate the amount of tax revenue we're losing from the power plant.  Will it take ten years to recover that kind of revenue?  Twenty?  Fifty?

That leaves us with two choices: pay more or spend less.  We are already paying more, and we're gearing up to pay more still.  According to early estimates our school tax will be over 6% higher this year if -- and that is a big if -- the schools cut a million dollars from their budget.  Half of that six percent goes entirely to making up this year's losses from AES tax revenue.  The rest is for treading water.  The argument that seems to continue winning in the school district is to hold on to as much as possible for as long as possible.  The losing argument has been to make drastic changes that will mean sustainable into the future despite rising costs.  It seems a bit passive-agressive to me and cynically idealistic.

We have known this was coming.  School officials started talking about a 'funding cliff' a couple of years ago.  Now that it's here the community seems, understandably, to be in shock.  Some folks are hoping that the plant will recover.  It has a good plan to continue operating after reorganizing under Chapter 11.  Others say it is on the road to oblivion, because a coal-fired plant will never be able to compete with natural gas plants.

Katy Perry did a version of her song with Sesame Street's Elmo: 'You want to play so I wore dress up clothes.  Then you ran away.  Left me here in this pose.  How am I supposed to play with you?'  She wants to play, but Elmo isn't going to.  She is just realizing that fact.  Time for a new plan.

Lansing wants to play but it needs a new Elmo.  And a new plan.  Or a new goose.

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