Archive: Opinions

If the Town of Lansing can pull off it's sewer project it will also get a town center.  Unlike Trumansburg or Dryden, Lansing doesn't have a central commercial/residential area.  In 2010 many residents attended town center meetings to tell town officials what they wanted in a town center, and most, if not all, of those items are included in current plans. 

For me the plan makes sense because it will attract business to the town, which is good for taxes.  I am hearing that it is already attracting business to the town, contingent on the availability of sewer.  The hope is that more business in town will fill the growing burden taxpayers shoulder as the town's biggest taxpaying property dwindles in value.

Meanwhile, the school district managed to keep their tax levy rise down to 2%, which would have meant a reasonable 1.5% tax rate increase.  But because of the reduction in value of the AES Cayuga power plant, the tax rate increase will be 4.5%.  The schools had to cut to make these numbers.

More revenue from a variety of businesses is the answer, and the town center, which will include a business and technology park as well as residential, professional, and retail elements is probably the best way to attract business here quickly.

Some people are questioning whether new business resulting from a town center initiative will be enough to make up for the AES Cayuga tax revenue losses.  I don't know if it will.  I do know that if we do nothing taxes will continue to skyrocket.  So something has to be done.  This seems like the right kind of something.

Of course the town center depends on a sewer, and that is far from assured.  From what I understand a lot of people in the town want sewer, but it has to be affordable.  Others don't want it at all.  I think somebody has to do something about the tax problem, and this is a something that somebody is doing.  The benefits could be plentiful.

But it has to be affordable.

It is now looking like the only way to make the sewer affordable is for the town to invest in it initially, then make back the money in the sale of the land as developers come.  Supervisor Kathy Miller argues that the whole town will benefit from a town center, so it is appropriate that the town support the sewer.  She is not talking about additional taxes, and she is talking about recovering the investment, most likely making a profit.

I don't live in the proposed sewer district, but I don't mind the town investing in it.  The town has other investments.  Why not invest in itself?

I think these next several months are going to be interesting times in Lansing.  It may mean the difference between people leaving the town for more affordable pastures and people coming to the town to live and work.  It could mean more Lansing kids come home to live and work after college.  When public sewer presentations come residents should ask hard questions, and town officials should have hard answers.

I respect the people who don't want sewer or a town center but I am not hearing solutions from them to the challenges that Lansing residents are facing as a community.  If this isn't the best way to attack high property taxes, what is a better way?  Or an alternate good way?

The important thing is for people of all opinions to get involved in the discussion.  That is the only way the whole town can truly determine its own fate.

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