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Lansing has a good deal in its volunteer fire department.  The current tax rate is $1.02 per $1000 of assessed property value (Ithacans pay $3.74), and that is not going to change in 2007.  In fact it may not change for three to five years.  Though assessments do keep going up, the fire district asks comparatively little of taxpayers when you compare it to County and School taxes, for instance.  And District Treasurer George Gesslein says the tax rate will stay the same for as long as possible.  "We're not going to provide fewer services," Gesslein  says.  We can't.  It's a matter of how far we can stretch it before it goes up.  We're good for a few years."

While there has been much talk of capital improvement projects in Lansing's fire district, the fire district has taken steps to reduce the impact to taxpayers by saving unspent funds each year.  This year, for instance, the district has only spent about a quarter of its $1,091,821 budget, three quarters of the way through the year.  Commissioner Chairman Bob Wagner says there are a lot of expenses, such as bond payments, that aren't paid until the end of the year, but there will still be some money left.  And while the budget rises to about a million and a half over the next 25 years, new homes built in the district and rises in assessments mean the tax rate can remain conservative.

"I put it into the reserve for capital expenditure, because there's no reason not to do that," Gesslein says.  "It' a low tax rate and we're earning about 5%.  This way the new people coming in don't get hit quite as hard and everybody pays.  It's kind of a balancing act."  The approach apparently works.Last August accountant Mimi Thuesen of Ciaschi, Dietershagen, Little, Mickelson and Co. LLP reported that the district exercises good fiscal responsibility.


Two capital projects are on the horizon, and spending may begin as early as next year.  A $2.5 million dollar firehouse is planned for the Village of Lansing, to replace the inadequately sized station on Oakcrest Road.  In addition fire commissioners are considering additions and renovations to Central Station on Ridge Road.  "We've plugged in some dollars for 2007," Gesslein  says.  "We may not spend them until 2008.  Right now the number is in there at about two and a half million dollars."

Looking 25 years into the future, Gesslein estimates that the tax rate won't have to rise until around 2009 or later, when he estimates it will go up two cents per assessed $1,000, and again around 2017 when it will go another two cents to $1.06.  "The growth rate of the assessed value of the community has been about one and a half percent," he explains.  "Inflation has been three to four percent.  Because of changes in safety requirements of the NFPA (National Fire Protection Association) our cost of large fire equipment is going up even faster.  It's probably going up six or seven percent."


The fire district also has to plan for growth, and may have to adjust their plan if growth in Lansing accelerates because of the sewer or County goals for increasing density.  "That's a question that I really don't know the answer to," Gesslein  says.  "We look every year at what the tax base is.  For instance, we have a one billion dollar tax base in the town.  The increase last year was $25 million.  The year before that was $40 million.  The year before it was $70 million.  It changes, but it doesn't change fast enough to keep up with inflation and the cost of fire equipment."

But the outlook is good, even with the capital expenditures commissioners foresee.  "Over 25 years the rises are not very great," Gesslein says.  Lansing's fire fighters prove every day that the benefits are.

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