Archive: Opinions

There is a battle over vision in Lansing.  Everyone seems to agree taxes are too high, and that they are threatened by the possibility of the Town's biggest taxpayer being forced to close, unfunded state mandates, and rising costs to the schools.  But Lansing seems paralyzed when it comes to doing anything about it.

Some people believe a sewer of some kind will attract businesses and the kinds of housing that will build up the tax base without putting too much strain on services.  Investing something now at a time when the town government happens to be flush would be paid back later as town land is sold and developers provide infrastructure and tax revenue.  Others believe that any new expenditure now is a new tax, and enough is enough.

Meanwhile projections by the school district show taxes going up, possibly in double digit percentages, possibly as early as next year.  Many people rally to the schools, saying they have already cut to the bone and the only answer is finding new revenue.  This camp has begun an advocacy initiative to try to talk Albany into providing more of the school aid they have been withdrawing for years now.  Others say the schools have not cut enough.

I certainly know what I think, but I also respect people who have opposing views to mine.  They are my neighbors and have the right to their opinion as much as I do to mine.  They live here too.  I am always open to the possibility that I am wrong, even when I think I am right.

But where does that leave us?

I am beginning to think it leaves us in a leadership void.  At some point leaders need to commit to action and lead their community to the next level.  That is especially hard in a divided community, which Lansing has become.  But perhaps it is more necessary in a divided community, because the kind of division we are seeing here can easily lead to paralysis that we are seeing now.

Whose problem is high school taxes?  Is it the Town's?  The School District's?

If it is the Town's the best solution that has been proposed so far is to do something to attract businesses and new development in general.  To increase the tax base to make up for the gaping hole left by the devaluation of the power plant and the very real possibility of losing it entirely in the next one to four years.  The big 'something' in the room is sewer.

In the Town Board working session Monday the question was raised, 'Is this the right time to be considering sewer?'.  The question is valid, because a revision to the Town's comprehensive plan is currently under way and that plan is supposed to guide town legislators as they create initiatives and pass laws.  A survey of residents is being analyzed, with resulting statistics imminent but not quite ready yet.

At the same time we have a comprehensive plan in place.  What is happening now is a revision, not something new.  Should the Town put itself on hold?

I would say yes except I have heard that question over the past decade whenever sewer is discussed.  There is always some reason why now is not the right time.  Isn't it doing due diligence to explore the possibilities now, and not wait a year?  Because while there will likely be an updated plan in a year, there will also be a reason why it is not the time. 

It was also suggested Monday that school taxes are really the school board's problem.  Well, that is true, but look what has happened with school taxes.  The board has done a credible job of keeping them much lower than they could have been, yet they are still a lot for taxpayers to bear.  One camp says 'You get what you pay for' and the high quality of education is worth the money, both for the education our kids get and because it also attracts development in our Town.  Of course that kind of development is the kind that requires more services.  It does not really bring much relief to the homeowner tax base.  But it is something. 

Another camp says the schools are still fat even after the cuts and should be doing more.  Should they?  This camp exclaims there are still too many expensive teachers.  They say they were in classes of 30 when they went to school and they turned out alright.

On Monday it was suggested that the Town and School Boards meet together to discuss taxes.  That is a great idea.  Hash out these issues and come up with a unified plan.  Joint meetings often take months to schedule because it is hard to reconcile so many peoples' calendars.  These board members should move mountains to make this meeting take place as soon as possible. 

Because taxes are going up.  If Lansing is lucky the power plant's value will go down next year, but will not go away.  That means our best case scenario is that we will pay at least as significant a tax rise as we did this year or more next year.  Doing nothing will do nothing to mitigate that.  Doing something may not help, but it might.

Because it's not the Town's problem and it's not the School District's problem.  It's our problem.  Taxpayers.  We pay that school tax and Town tax and everything else tax.  The way the system works we elect leaders to solve the problem for us, and we have a reasonable expectation that they will.  We really need them to do it now.

I'm not saying that sewer is the be-all, end-all solution, but it is the only practical solution that anyone has suggested to increase the tax base and bring business and a Town Center (which townspeople told their government they want when the Town Center Committee was active only a few years ago, and which, by the way, is firmly in line with the existing comprehensive plan).  The Town has the money now to do studies.  It should be doing them now while it can afford them, not later when reserves are dried up.  Or someone should put forward a different action plan and studies should be done on that.

We have passed the buffer time.  School taxes are going up significantly next year or very significantly.  Those are our choices right now.

That is why 'now' is the time to consider sewer or to come up with a real, practical alternative plan to contain taxes in a way that will preserve the character of Lansing while allowing its residents to stay here and thrive here.  The tax situation has become urgent.  If our town and school leaders can't agree on an action plan all the worst-case consequences we have been bandying around for years -- willy nilly development, long-time residents being forced to move elsewhere, farms closing, a drastic change in the character of the town from the mixed rural-near city community to an Ithaca suburb -- will become Lansing's reality.

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