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Editorial: Read Our Lips... |
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by Dan Veaner
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Friday, 09 February 2007 |
It seemed like Lansing voters were quoting the first President Bush Tuesday when they defeated the proposed Lansing schools capital project. "Read our lips," they seemed to say. "No new taxes!" While the main part of the project was defeated by only 16 votes, the number of 'nay' votes was higher than many people expected. And it is going to be a problem for a number of projects that are being contemplated in Lansing.
The capital project vote was the second defeat in less than a year for the Board Of Education. This seems to indicate voters' shaken confidence in the way the school district budgets and spends money. Many voters said they were unhappy with the budget that passed last summer, but that it was better to pay up than to have local spending controlled by the state. When a budget vote fails, public confidence is affected. Each time it happens it becomes harder to get proposals passed.
And the failure of the capital project will have consequences for other municipal votes as well. Ithacans will be voting on their own school capital project next month, and were no doubt watching Lansing this week. The sewer project already faces opposition, and the school vote will no doubt make it more of a challenge for the Sewer Committee to garner public support. The Lansing Community Library Center wants to charter this year, and the fire district is considering two capital projects of its own: an addition to Central Station and a new firehouse in the Village of Lansing.
Lansing voters don't want more taxes. You hear over and over that Lansing residents are being taxed out of their homes. Many have expressed to the Town Board that more taxes or fees for water, sewer, or schools would force them to move, or in some cases lose their business. The town has seen a grass roots tax revolt that seems to be growing.
Although it didn't pay off in the end, School District officials did a lot right this time around. They involved the community in the process of developing the capital project from day one. They asked for community input and publicized the progress of the Facilities Committee as the project was being developed. They sent mailings, bulletins, advertised, provided access to the press, went on the radio, held public hearings and informational meetings -- and were quite eloquent about the needs, especially in the high school, that the project would address. But low turnout at the public hearings seemed to send the message that people just didn't want to hear about anything that would raise taxes right now.
That puts school officials between a rock and a hard place. The needs addressed by the project are not going to go away. And they will be more expensive to address a year from now, or two years from now. But if the Board Of Education doesn't do something to restore public confidence in school spending the situation will only get worse. Lansing residents will be looking very closely at the 2007-2008 budget. And that will impact projects and budgets to come.
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