CITY NEWS - 12/05/07 - City cuts tax rate hike to 7.8 percent

(As published by Cortland Standard, Aimee Milks reporting)

A new proposal offered Tuesday would reduce the 2008 city tax rate increase to 7.8 percent, down from nearly 10 percent.

Common Council members will vote Dec. 18 on the amended budget offered by city Director of Administration and Finance Andy Damiano.

“This has been a very trying situation for us,” said Mayor Tom Gallagher.

Damiano said the tax rate increase was reduced by 2 percent by taking out money from the city’s reserves.

“All the city employees contribute a percentage of their health insurance, which is placed into the reserves. We appropriated an extra $135,000 into the budget,” Damiano said.

Damiano added that the city always takes $200,000 of the money from the employee’s health insurance out of the reserves and puts it into the budget. However, he said this year he thought they had enough to take out $335,000, which cut the tax rate increase by 2 percent.

With the initial 9.8 percent tax rate increase the city’s 2008 budget was at $16.8 million, and would be the same with the 7.8 percent increase.

After the amended budget was presented, the council discussed further ways to cut the tax rate increase down from the new 7.8 percent figure.

“The problem is that there are so many people in the city that can’t afford a 10 percent tax increase,” said Alderwoman Val VanGorder (R-1st Ward).

Alderwoman Susan Feiszli (D-6th Ward) suggested the council turn the budget over to the department heads to cut another $60,000 to $70,000 out of each individual budget for a total of $200,000.

“I think the problem of what the council faces is not in appropriation but revenue,” Damiano said. “This council is focusing on one year. We really should have raised the taxes 20 percent and we managed to cut it to 9.8 percent by shorting the people in this room the money they need to run their departments.

“Even if we cut the raise to 2 percent, it does nothing for our financial future” Damiano added. “We can’t keep putting the burden on department heads … I am already asking them to operate with unreasonable numbers. I am basically asking them to do the impossible.”

If the Common Council does not have a majority vote to accept the amended budget with a 7.8 percent increase, then the 9.8 percent increase will automatically go into effect. However, the council can further amend the budget.

CITY NEWS - 12/05/07 - CRMC pledges to make potential property acquisitions known

Joe McIntyre/staff photographer
A woman uses the main entrance of Cortland Regional Medical Center this morning.

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

Mayor Tom Gallagher said Tuesday Cortland Regional Medical Center officials pledged last week to stay in communication about potential property acquisitions and their possible uses.

Gallagher discussed during Tuesday’s Common Council meeting the results of a meeting he and city Director of Administration and Finance Andy Damiano had with hospital officials regarding their 30-year development plan and recent property purchases, such as the Kleen Korner on the corner of Van Hoesen Street and Homer Avenue.

Gallagher, Damiano and other city officials have been involved in talks with CRMC management since the hospital’s expansion became an issue this summer.

The Kleen Korner property would be demolished and replaced with a medical office building, half of which would be taxable, Gallagher said.

“That building would probably be assessed at a lot more than the Kleen Korner was,” Gallagher said this morning, and it would probably result in a net increase in taxes.

The council was supportive of and stressed the need for open discussions with the hospital regarding future plans, as well as possibilities for reimbursement of the loss of taxable properties.

The issue of the hospital’s expansion became a major campaign issue for Common Council candidates in the late summer and fall, with many criticizing CRMC’s continued expansion.

The loss of property tax revenue for parking lots inflamed both the council and the city Planning Commission, which approved one such parking lot expansion last week.

As of August, $365,000 in assessed valuation had been lost due to the expansion of the hospital in recent years. Damiano has said that the city loses out on $4 million worth of property taxes because of the hospital’s tax-exempt status.

City officials have been clamoring for some kind of reimbursement of this lost revenue, but the law protects the hospital’s non-profit status and the city does not have the ability to compel CRMC to pay any monies to the city for essential services, such as police and fire protection. The hospital does pay for its water and sewer services, which Gallagher said are substantial.
Gallagher said this morning that the hospital owns about 41 properties in the city, about 33 of which are tax-exempt.

He said CRMC officials are “very sensitive” to the tax situation.

Hospital officials are hoping to straighten the intersection of North Main Street and West Main Street, which Gallagher said CRMC would foot the bill for.
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Staff reporter Aimee Milks contributed to this article.

11/30/07 - Settlements lower for South Main parcels

2 property owners drop $10,000 from claims over failed public health building project

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The settlements for two failed residential property purchases on William and Randall streets in connection with the county’s aborted public health building proposal could be about $30,000, roughly $10,000 less than the property owners had originally requested.

County Attorney Ric Van Donsel requested approval Thursday from the Legislature’s Budget and Finance Committee to settle the claims, but the committee decided to table the matter until its Dec. 13 meeting.

Settlement with a third property owner involved in the original December 2006 purchase offer for nine properties along south Main Street is still in dispute, Van Donsel said.

The former owner of 6 Randall St. has agreed to accept $17,433.40 in damages, Van Donsel said. Steve Lissberger originally requested $19,857.96 from the county.

The property was sold at the beginning of August for $72,500, according to the County Clerk’s office. The county had originally planned to purchase the property for $73,000.

James and Yvonne Cole, who still own the property at 11 William St., would accept $12,475 in damages, Van Donsel told the committee. They had originally sought $20,000 from the county, which had agreed to buy their house for $90,000.

Van Donsel said the county should not offer a settlement to the former owner of a third property at 8 Randall St. Annamaria Maniaci wants a $4,000 settlement, but Van Donsel said he did not agree with what Maniaci purported to be the costs she accumulated between the county’s backing out of the contract and the property’s sale to a third party.

The county originally agreed to pay $96,000 for the property. Maniaci sold her home for $9,000 more than the county had agreed to pay and claimed in a lawsuit that the county’s retreat from the original deal cost her $13,000 in various expenditures, seeking to make up the difference. An attorney with Maniaci’s law firm, Riehlman, Shafer & Shafer, was unavailable for comment this morning.

Budget and Finance Committee member Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward) said he would be in favor of trying to purchase the Lissberger and Cole properties, but Van Donsel and County Administrator Scott Schrader pointed out that the Lissberger property has been sold.

11/30/07 - City’s sales tax request denied

Legislature chooses not to reopen negotiations into sales tax distribution

(As published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The county Legislature turned down the city’s request to reopen negotiations over the distribution of county sales tax revenue, but did decide to arrange an early December meeting with city officials to discuss long-range possibilities for saving money.

Legislators Ron Van Dee (D-5th Ward) and Dan Tagliente (D-7th Ward) were the only ones supporting a resolution that could have sped up the rate at which the city and other municipalities would have received larger shares of the total sales tax revenue.

City Director of Administration and Finance Andy Damiano brought up the sales tax agreement and the city’s difficult financial situation in a letter to the editor of the Cortland Standard that was delivered on Oct. 30. A copy of the letter was also sent to Legislature Chairman Marilyn Brown (D-8th Ward).

The city’s fund balance is effectively depleted and taxpayers are expecting a 9.8 percent tax rate increase for 2008.

In 2008, the city would be receiving 18 percent of sales tax revenue under a six-year agreement reached in 2006. The city would receive 18.2 percent in 2009, and the towns and villages would split the remaining 29.8 percent.

The county expects to take in just over $12.7 million in sales tax revenue this year, while the city expects to take in about $4 million.

Under the new agreement, the county will gradually reduce its share of the revenue from its current 56 percent to 52 percent by 2009.

In his letter, Damiano asked that the distribution be returned to its pre-2004 levels — the county had been receiving 52 percent, the city had received the 18.24 percent it would be returned to in 2009 and the other municipalities had received a combined 29.76 percent.

Van Dee said the county, had it decided to reopen negotiations, would have likely sped up the distribution schedule so the city would receive 18.2 percent next year.

Although Legislator Merwin Armstrong (R-Cuyler, Solon, Truxton) had been concerned about the other municipalities losing out on sales tax revenue if the city request had been honored, Damiano pointed out this morning that under his plan, the other towns and villages would have received a larger percentage of the total revenue than they would under the current agreement.

11/30/07 - $114M county budget approved

(As Published by Cortland Standard, Evan Geibel reporting)

The county’s $114 million 2008 budget was approved Thursday night at a regular Legislature meeting. The budget would reduce the average county tax rate of $14.91 per $1,000 of assessed property value in 2007 to a 2008 rate of $14.31 per $1,000.

The budget calls for $2.7 million in new spending for 2008, while the overall $114 million budget represents a $6 million, or 5.2 percent, increase over the $108 million 2007 spending plan.

Despite the spending increases, the proposed budget reduces the overall tax levy by $111,000, or 0.5 percent, to $24.7 million.

The Legislature added a last minute amendment to the budget, voting unanimously to transfer $10,000 that had been budgeted for the county contingency fund to the Lime Hollow Center for Environment and Culture.

Legislator Kay Breed (R-Cortlandville) had proposed the change early on in the budget process, but the request was apparently lost in the shuffle.

The recommended contingency fund balance was $500,000, as was originally budgeted.

The county also passed an increase in the senior citizen tax exemption, increasing the base exemption income limit from $10,500 to $16,500 with an upper income limit of $22,199.99.
Residents over 65 years old who make $16,500 or less are exempt from 50 percent of the potential county property taxes. The exemption percentages reduce gradually, so that a senior making between $21,300 and $22,199.99 — the upper income limit — would be exempt from 20 percent of the potential property taxes.