|
Jan
25
2008
|
Dan Veaner
|
|
Friday, 25 January 2008 |
 In trying times everybody likes to play the blame game. And times couldn't get much more trying for Lansing's Board Of Education. The buildings are crumbling, taxes are high and getting higher, reserve funds are depleted, and the district hasn't been able to keep top administrators for any significant length of time since Andrea price left in 2001. Since then the district has had Interim Superintendents four times (Tiffany Phillips three times, and Tom Helmer last year) and four Superintendents (Robert J. Service, Corliss Kaiser, Mark Lewis, and now Steve Grimm).
In the past two and a half years alone the district has had one so-called permanent business administrator and four interims, including Gary Alger, Larry Driscoll, Larry Lawrence, and Klemm. That chaos at the top along with a philosophically divided school board during much of that time has had disastrous results for the district and its taxpayers. And after much time spent defining a job description and hiring a Director of Curriculum, Deb Pichette left that post after one year. Even though it has been redefined yet again, the post will not be filled, at least this year.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Jan
18
2008
|
Dan Veaner
|
|
Friday, 18 January 2008 |
Politicians love those Ed McMahon big check moments. They get to slide into a community, present an oversized check to the locals, provide photo ops, smile, shake hands, and garner goodwill for the next election.
I love those moments, too. They're fun and they bring money into the community for this project or that. But when New York Governor Elliot Spitzer came to Ithaca the other day to announce a $2.3 million grant to clean up Gun Hill it made my head spin. Because there is a line between encouraging local business and pandering to it. Spitzer crossed the line.
As the cast of Saturday Night Live asked in 1976, 'Is it a floor wax or is it a dessert topping?' Or in government spending terms, 'Is it a good use of public money, or is it a $100,000 toilet seat?'
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Jan
18
2008
|
Senator Michael Nozzolio
|
|
Friday, 18 January 2008 |
 It was good to hear the Governor embrace a number of initiatives that have already been enacted in the New York State Senate to drastically cut property taxes for New York's overburdened residents and create new jobs in the region.
In particular, I was pleased the Governor has pledged his support for the creation of a new $50 million Upstate Agribusiness Fund to expand our agricultural industry and continued funding for research at the Agricultural Experiment Station in Geneva.
With the commitment of the Governor, I am hopeful that he will be able to convince the Assembly to finally act on these important initiatives.
|
|
Jan
18
2008
|
Donna Scott
|
|
Friday, 18 January 2008 |
|
Dear Editor,
I went to the link in your excellent article about the Tompkins County Assessment Department to try to find my house assessment.
I was not able to get any assessment there.
I put in what I thought was my property's tax ID number right off my last tax bill, but all I get is a bunch of old accessory data and photos about my property, but no assessment. The results also said that no property matches my search!Some of the "data" is in some software called Quicktime or the like, and when I try to download that software, it tells me that it is unavailable.
|
|
Read more...
|
|
Jan
11
2008
|
Dan Veaner
|
|
Friday, 11 January 2008 |
Despite all the confusion and disagreement on last month's library vote there is one thing everyone seems to agree on: the voting procedure is flawed and needs to be fixed. The problem is that anyone can vote, whether they can legally vote or not. All you have to do is sign a log with your name and address and you get to vote. There is no voter registration or certification. That may not invite fraud, but it certainly leaves a big hole in the system to allow it.
That is the basis on which the library vote is being challenged, but there is no question that those challenging it are against the library having the authority to tax residents. The problem with challenging the process now is that if the library vote was illegal, why weren't the past several years of school district votes also illegal? Are the budgets we approved for those years invalid? What about school board members? Are they legally on the school board? School bus funding? Capital projects?
|
|
Read more...
|
|
|
|
<< Start < Prev 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Next > End >>
|
| Results 28 - 36 of 245 |
Archive Opinions 
