Archive: Opinions

Lansing is between a rock and a hard place at the moment.  If the Cayuga Power Plant closes the town will need to attract a lot of businesses to grow the tax base to a sustainable level.  To do that it needs to be able to provide new and expanding businesses the infrastructure they need.  NYSEG's natural gas delivery infrastructure is so overloaded right now that the company is not accepting new applications.  If a gas delivery pipeline stretching through Dryden from Freeville to Lansing is stymied by property owners unwilling to grant easements, it will cripple Lansing's ability to grow.  That, in turn, will mean higher tax rates to make up for the lost income, particularly to do with the school tax.  And it may mean cutting school programs in addition to the higher tax.  That would force families to leave Lansing for more affordable pastures.

That, in a nutshell, is the worst case scenario.  What is the reality?

The problem is that we don't know what will happen at this point.  We do know that the power plant is finalizing a purchase agreement, and a spokesman for the new owner has said the company plans to invest in the facility and bring the Lansing employees into the company fold.  We don't know for sure that the sale will be completed, and we don't know what 'investing in the facility' actually means.  It is hard to imagine that anyone would buy a coal-based power plant without some plan for upgrading it.  But 'hard to imagine' isn't an action plan.

The plant has lost about 5/6ths of its value at the peak of its operation.  It is currently valued at $60 million, which generates about $1.3 million in school tax payments.  It's a pretty good bet it will retain this value at least until some time in 2017, when its energy reliability contract is up.  At that point we don't know what its value will be.  If the plant shuts down it will still have some taxable value.  But with questions about pollution from the coal ash field, the lakefront property could be unusable for new development, whatever that might be.  Or not -- we don't know.

As for the gas pipeline, NYSEG told the Public Service Commission (PSC) last month that it is exploring all options for delivering more natural gas to Lansing.  We don't know what all those options are, though it is pretty clear that forcing the 50% of property owners along the route of the delivery pipeline to cede their rights via eminent domain is on the table at this point.  That is about 50 property owners who have been quite vocal about not wanting a natural gas pipeline on their property.

Communities always hope that infrastructure will be extended before the existing infrastructure runs out of capacity, especially in growing communities like Lansing.  But the fact is that this infrastructure has reached its capacity, and nobody knows how long it will take for NYSEG to find a solution, or, really, what their timeline actually is.

All this uncertainty is wreaking havoc with local taxing authorities' ability to plan, and it is meaning more taxes as the school district and town explore the creation of tax mitigation reserves.  These reserves are a good idea in this uncertain time, but the money has to come from somewhere, and that means -- yup, higher taxes.  it is true that these higher taxes may be the only way to prevent ridiculously higher taxes in the future, but it is equally true that it may just be too late for such reserves to make a difference in time to save some families' ability to afford to stay here.

On top of that is a bone of contention between the Town and Village of Lansing, particularly about how villagers are taxed and how the Town's snow plowing revenues are applied.  The Mayor is trying to negotiate what he says would be a fairer taxation of his constituents, but has said he will pursue splitting off from the Town if a mutually acceptable agreement can't be reached.  I looked at the state requirements for forming a coterminous town/village, and of the four options, two don't apply.  The third one makes it possible, though the hurdles may be too steep for the Village, and the fourth is not realistic because it would require a town-wide referendum and it is har to believe that townspeople outside of the village who make up two thirds of Lansing's population would go for a split that would mean about a third of the Town's tax revenue vaporizing.  So we don't know whether the municipalities will be able to agree.  And we don't know if the Village could be successful if it did try to break away.  It is just another layer of uncertainty at this point.

What we don't know and what we can't know has been the biggest threat to the Lansing community for a half dozen years.  A lot of local officials hoped that a PSC decision on whether or not it would approve a plan to repower the coal-fired plant with natural gas would provide more certainty one way or the other about how to proceed with tax planning.  But when the decision finally came a few weeks ago, these same officials didn't know what to make of the situation.  They said they are planning for any eventuality, but the school district is the most vulnerable right now.

Will the new owners keep the plant open?  Will they upgrade it?  Will the jobs, even if they are retained, stay in Lansing?  Will the natural gas pipeline be built any time soon? Or at all?  Will the Village stay or leave?  It sounds like a television season cliffhanger.  TV certainly uses the maximum hyperbole to make sure you are worried enough to view their shows next season.  Unfortunately for Lansing, none of this is hype -- it is our current reality.  And while change is stressful, uncertainty is more stressful.

Lansing High School is performing the 'Addams Family' musical this week.  Perhaps while that is happening they can get the actress who plays Grandmama to look into her crystal ball and tell the rest of us what the heck is going to happen.

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