HomeMy WebLinkAboutReport of the Mayor 12/20/1976VILLAGE OF CAYUGA HEIGHTS
REPORT OF THE MAYOR December 20, 1976
I have received from Assemblyman Gary Lee a letter concerning "state mandates" upon
units of local government. He Is a member of the Committee Just appointed to con-
sider these mandates, and he speaks as if his interest is in reducing the number of
these mandates so as to lessen the interference of the State in local affairs. He
assumes that we will understand what these mandates are and asks us to list five or
six of the most irksome. He wishes a reply before the end of this month.
We may learn something concerning the efficiency of State Government when we ob-
serve that following receipt of Mr. Lee's letter on 12 -13, we received notice on
12 -17 that a meeting to discuss this matter had been scheduled for Albany on 11 -29.
We had never been informed of this meeting. In the memorandum which we received
on 12 -17 we were notified that a meeting would be held on 12 -20 In Albany. In
short, it would seem that Mr. Lee, who says he is a member of the Committee of
Inquiry, was totally unaware of the timetable arranged In connection with the
Committee's hearings.
The State has decreed (?mandated) that there shall be a 50% exemption from real
property taxes to be applied over a ten -year period - 5% per year - for certain
additions to and remodellings of business premises begun after January I, 1976 and
to be finished after July I, 1976.
However, the new decree allows a unit of local government to substitute for the
501 any lesser exemption even to the point of fixing the exemption figure at zero.
If we wish to use any lesser figure, we must act before the end of this month.
Albany Informs us that our equalization rate is to be 55.33. This means that the
figures used are the long outdated ones that have been used in recent years. I
asked the County Assessor's Office when their new County -wide assessment program
would be finished and when new figures would be made available for Albany. They
replied that for the Villages of the County, the existing figures will be in effect
for two more years.
Mr. Paul Bradford asks to be excused from making an audit of the police justice's
financial record for the fiscal year ending 3l May 1976 on the grounds that State
auditors are making a similar audit at the present moment.
Over the past year we have had many exchanges with the County Personnel Office con-
cerning the forms we submit to them concerning new work force appointments, termi-
nations, changes in status, etc. We have used our own application form for new
appointments and promotions. The standard oath of loyalty to the State went with
the new appointment. The County Attorney has ruled that we mutt use the County
application form which, among other things, calls on the applicant to allow the
County or Its agents to probe deeply into the personal life of the applicant by
search of educational and financial records and inquiries among neighbors, employ-
ers, acquaintances, etc.
We lost the battle over keeping our own simpler form which lacks an In -depth search
•into the applicant's personal life. We are still fighting on the demand by the
County that the form and the oath be required of persons moving from one rank to
another.
Report of the Mayor - December 20, 1976
page 2
In view of the concern expressed by this Board regarding a request from the
Lansing Fire Department to our Department for "first alarm response" from our
Department I wrote at once to our Fire Council informing the members of this
Board's interest and asking that Trustees Randolph, Philbrick, and Anderson be
allowed to Join with the Council when it discussed the Lansing request.
F. G. Marcham, Mayor
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