Mar
12
2010
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
 The Lansing Board of Education (BOE) starts each year with a 'rollover budget' figure, the amount it will cost next year to do everything the district did this year. Then it adds or subtracts based on program needs, physical plant, growth, and tax impact to come up with a budget for next year. That's how it works in times of prosperity. But with severe state aid reductions this year and looking ahead several years, and reduced federal money, the Lansing BOE is looking at an approximately $2 million gap.
"This is the calm before the storm," Supernintendent Stephen Grimm said at Monday's BOE meeting. "In the next budget presentation on March 22, we will unveil where we are going to close our revenue gap. More specifically, what many people are concerned with are cuts. What we're finding is that the revenue gap is increasing. There is no way you can cut that much money without cutting people."
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Mar
12
2010
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
 The Lansing Central School District’s $3,612,048 2010 Health, Learning and Safety Capital Project passed Tuesday night (March 9th) 386-116. The district asked taxpayers to approve the project, with no additional tax impact. The project addresses problems identified in a 2005 inspection of school buildings, and will focus mainly on the high school.
Superintendent Stephen Grimm, Business Administrator Mary June King, School Board President Anne Drake, and school board member Glenn Swanson waited Tuesday night as the votes were counted. 489 voters showed up at the polls Tuesday, and 13 write-in votes were counted. The write-ins tallied 7-6 for the project, but the final count shooed it in with more than 3-1 voting yes.
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Mar
12
2010
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by Judith Pratt
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
 Fall Creek School is safe—for now. But the Ithaca City School Board still doesn’t know how to manage a $5 to $8 million shortfall without severe cuts to programs and raising school taxes.
One month ago, Superintendent Judith Pastel suggested closing part of the Ithaca City School District (ICSD) budget gap by closing the smallest school in the district, Fall Creek. Parents and students from that school organized an ongoing protest.
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Mar
12
2010
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by Jay Franklin
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
 As part of the Annual Reassessment Program, all parcels were reviewed for the 2010 roll year and Preliminary Assessment Change Notices will be mailed to 2,787 property owners. This consists of 719 decreases in assessed value and 2,068 increases in assessed value.
To provide property owner’s whose assessment has changed since the 2009 Final Assessment Roll adequate time to review the 2010 Preliminary Assessment Roll, the Department of Assessment will hold meetings from March 22 – April 9, 2010 for these property owners. At these meetings, it is the property owners’ responsibility to present any new information (such as changes in inventory and/or any recent fee appraisals) regarding their parcel that the Department of Assessment has not already taken into account while valuing their property at 100% fair market value. All real property information (including sales) is available for review on the 5 public computers in the Assessment Office, this information is also available at the Tompkins County Clerk’s Office.
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Mar
12
2010
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by Marcia E. Lynch
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
 County Administrator Joe Mareane told the Legislature’s budget committee today that the County must quickly assess the local cost involved before deciding whether to seek federal stimulus funds as part of a regional initiative to extend broadband service to underserved areas.
Over the past several months, the County has been considering participation in a wide-ranging program, funded through the federal stimulus and proposed by the Southern Tier East and Southern Tier Central Regional Planning and Development Boards, which would build a multi-county, multi-regional open access fiber-based telecommunications network.
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Mar
12
2010
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
 Nearly 200 people gathered at Trumansburg High School Saturday for a forum on how state and federal school aid cuts will impact local schools. With $1.4 billion being cut state-wide, the impact to schools in the TST BOCES system will be 10 million in cuts in the coming year. The purpose of the forum was to join local school districts to form a louder voice than individual districts have in order to attract press and legislative attention. The message was to slow down the onslaught of cuts and get rid of nonproductive unfunded state and federal mandates.
"We are in survival mode," said Groton Superintendent Brenda Myers. "Groton lost 15 ½ positions last year alone."
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Mar
12
2010
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by Marcia E. Lynch
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Friday, 12 March 2010 |
With a week to go before Census forms begin to arrive in mailboxes throughout Tompkins County, County officials and community partners gathered this noon to celebrate the 2010 Census and to urge everyone to participate.
At the event, held at the Tompkins County Public Library, speakers reminded the community how the Census is important to our community and urged that everyone watch for their Census form to arrive in the next few days, to fill it out, and to send it back. The event was sponsored by the county’s 2010 Census Complete Count Committee and the many local partners in the community Census campaign.
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