CITY NEWS - 1/23/08- City in line for 9 percent aid increase totaling $190,000

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Christine Laubenstein reporting)

The city intends to use $190,000 in additional state aid to replace its city hall and fire station roofs. Other local municipalities plan to use smaller amounts of extra aid toward basic maintenance, fuel and utility costs.

Local municipalities will be seeing a 3- to 9.5-percent increase in direct state aid under the governor’s proposed 2008-09 budget that was unveiled Tuesday.

The city would see the largest percent increase in aid to municipalities funding, while municipalities including the town of Truxton, the village of Marathon and the town of Dryden will see the lowest percent increase in state aid.

The percent increases are based on the municipalities’ level of fiscal distress, which is measured by whether full valuation of taxable real property is less than 50 percent of the state average; more than 60 percent of the constitutional property tax limit is exhausted; population loss is greater than 10 percent since 1970; and the poverty rate is 150 percent greater than the statewide average.

All four indicators were met for the city of Cortland, according to the state Division of the Budget’s Web site.

Cortland is proposed to get $2,192,027 in direct state aid for the 2008-09 fiscal year, a 9.5 percent increase over the $2,001,851 it received this year.

Mayor Tom Gallagher said the extra money might also fund repairs to roads and replace equipment such as Department of Public Works vehicles and police department vehicles.

“I will guess that it will be gone pretty quick,” he said of the extra money.

The city budgeted $2 million for the aid, Gallagher said. The additional aid will go into the general fund.

For some small municipalities, the increase in aid would not have much of an impact.

Under the proposed state budget, the village of Groton would get $20,916 in aid to municipalities funding, a 5 percent increase over its current $19,920.

Mayor Dennis Toolan said the increase would not stretch far. “All you can probably do is buy the same amount you bought last year, with cost increases for fuel and equipment,” Toolan said.

He also noted that although state aid to municipalities is going up under the Spitzer administration, it is still far below what it was a number of years ago. The village used to get about $30,000 in direct state aid, Toolan said, but the state cut that amount to save money.

“It still is nowhere like it was,” he said about the proposed 2008-09 funding.

Homer Town Supervisor Fred Forbes added that over the years the percentage of court fees the state takes from municipalities has gone up, serving as a counterbalance to the recent increase in aid to municipalities.

Politicians do not always provide the full picture when touting their spending increases, he said.
“I say it’s about parties trying to make it a political game,” he said. “It’s nothing against Spitzer — the game gets played no matter who’s in office.”

Spitzer’s proposed 2008-09 budget gives the town an extra $2,416, for a total of $50,740.
That money would go toward lighting at the Town Hall and other Town Hall costs, Forbes said.

I am disappointed that there was no mention of restoring funding to the Cortland Free Library.