Archive: News

Lansing Town Board members agreed on a preliminary budget Monday that could potentially lower the town tax rate by 44.15%.  Town Supervisor Scott Pinney says the budget meets all the departments' requests except for a loader and a pickup truck requested by the Highway Department.

"This is our preliminary budget," Pinney said.  "The only part that is actually official is the wage increase for elected officials.  We will have more meetings to discuss all parts of the budget.  Most likely that rate will change."

Pinney says the proposal to use excess fund balance to lower the tax rate came from Councilman Robert Cree.  Cree has an accounting background, and has been auditing payments monthly before the board votes to pay the Town's bills.  Councilman Marty Christopher was unable to attend the Monday meeting.  Tuesday Christopher said he opposes the 44.15% tax rate cut, saying it is irresponsible to cut the rate that deeply.

Christopher said Tuesday that the decision was made without him, and he is adamantly opposed to a cut that deep.  He said the Board has until today to come up with an official preliminary budget and was working on calling a special meeting to iron out differences before posting it.  But Pinney assured him Wednesday that this budget is simply a starting point.

The total town preliminary budget for 2012 is $4,177,572.  About half of that will come from estimated revenue to the town, and another quarter is slated to be raised by taxes.  The remaining $1,076,781 would come from unexpended fund balance if the Town Board votes to apply that much money toward the budget.

In 2008 Lansing's town tax rate was 1.8345.  In 2009 it was 1.7978.  It came down to 1.7153 in 2010 and was further reduced to 1.6241 this year.  If the preliminary budget is kept as is the estimated tax rate for 2012 would be 0.9071.  The town tax cut would apply equally to town residents inside and outside the Village of Lansing.

A cut that deep would actually bring the Town tax rate below that of last year's Lansing Fire District rate of 0.980003, which has been significantly lower than town, county, and school tax rates in the past.  Last year's Tompkins County tax rate was 6.476849.  County Legislators are almost certain to raise that this year.

The estimated tax rate for Lansing is based on a whole town valuation of $1,138,241,170.  That figure includes regular property taxes as well as Payment In Lieu Of Taxes (PILOT) revenue.  PILOT revenues are decreasing this year due to reductions in the value of the AES Cayuga power plant located in the northwest portion of the town.

Bookkeeper/Personnel Officer Sharon Bowman says that the preliminary budget does not compromise the level of services, but notes that it can change between now and the final draft.

"This is probably the best case scenario," she says.  "Residents should get the benefit of our stewardship of their money."

Pinney noted the proposed budget does not address recent concerns about the road maintenance schedule.  He contradicted statements made a few weeks ago by Highway Superintendent Jack French in which French said that the combination of budget cuts and soaring costs have stretched the town's road maintenance schedule from retopping roads every 10 years to 25 years.

"In my professional opinion town roads are in great shape," Pinney said Tuesday morning.  "A lot of the money that was needed 15 to 20 years ago was for substandard roads that needed to be brought up to the standard we have today.  At this point we don't need to spend what we did in the past, and can maintain the roads every 25 years."

At this stage it appears that four of the five Town Board members approve of the preliminary budget figures.  Three more budget meetings are scheduled in October to comb over the numbers and come up with a final draft.  A public budget hearing is scheduled for November 9th at 6pm at the Lansing Town Hall.

v7i38