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HomeMy WebLinkAbout2015-10-28Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 1 of 11 TOWN OF DRYDEN TOWN BOARD MEETING BUDGET HEARINGS October 28, 2015 Present: Supervisor Mary Ann Sumner, Cl Gregory Sloan, Cl Joseph Solomon, Cl Jason Leifer, Cl Linda Lavine Elected Officials: Rick Young, Highway Superintendent Other Town Staff: Erin A. Bieber, Deputy Town Clerk Jennifer Case, Bookkeeper Jennifer Jones, Director of Recreation Rick Case, Assistant Superintendant of Public Works Supv Sumner called the meeting to order at 7 p.m. and board members and audience participated in the pledge of allegiance. PUBLIC HEARING 2016 GENERAL AND SPECIAL DISTRICT BUDGETS FIRE AND AMBULANCE CONTRACTS Supv Sumner opened the public hearings on the general and special districts budgets, fire contracts, and ambulance contracts at 7:02PM. Supv Sumner thanked the Board for the work they have put into the budget. In the general operating fund the total appropriations are up 6% mainly due to the following increases: in engineering and maintenance for the Crispell Dam $15,000, youth service $11,000 (which is offset by increased funding by the County), energy improvements to the Highway/DPW garage $15,000 and a contractual line in the Supervisors line for $20,000 which has been controversial. The money is for IT support, human resources and accounting. There is also an increase in the Highway operating fund for machinery maintenance and a $94,000 increase in materials for paving. Cl. Leifer proposed taking out the $20,000 from A1220.4 (the Supervisor line) and reduce A1990.4 (A fund Contingency) to $30,000 which will reduce the budget by $40,000. Supv Sumner believes reducing either fund will be a mistake. Cl. Sloan verified that $40,000 reduction would decrease the amount taken from fund balance. The Etna fire department requested 30K for equipment using part of their fund balance and getting the rest from the Town. They have done some fund raising this year and hope to use some of that. Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 2 of 11 Supv Sumner said that Neptune got the amount that they requested because they are in a two year contract with the Town, Freeville got what they requested because that amount was low to start with, and Varna got a lot less than what they requested and were agreeable to the reduction. Nathan Richards from the Etna FD commented on their current budget request. The public statements appear to be wrong. They asked for $165,000 but the budget being considered is for $140,000. All the Fire Departments except Freeville will receive a 3% increase. There is still a contingency line with $19,000 in the fire prevention budget so there is some money if the need arose. Mr. Richards indicated the higher request was due to the increase in department membership which has led to an increase in the need for equipment. Linda Clougherty, Hunt Hill Road, supports the Board’s decision to use the “overly generous tax payer revenue fund”, established mainly during the1990s to keep the tax rate constant during the greatest economic crisis facing our nation since the Great Depression. Recent publications by the Dryden Independence party also support the use of these funds for the rainy day purposes. Those of us who lost our jobs or didn’t receive a wage increase appreciate that our Town taxes (although only about 5% of our total tax bill) didn’t increase during that time. Now that the economic environment is moving toward stability, she can live with the 11% tax increase this year and the 9% proposed tax increase for next year. After all, we didn’t have a tax increase for 10 years. She will gladly pay the increased rate to support adult and youth programs, trails, road maintenance and snow removal. She supports the budget. Mike Rogers, asked that the Town tax those people that like the taxes and undercut some of those people who don’t like the taxes. There isn’t any integrity or scruples here so why do all of us have to be penalized in this economy brought on by our illustrious governments. Not only this one, but the one before that and before that. The weather is up and down like a yo-yo, is global cooling or global warming. Now he has heard that carcinogens in processed meat are bad for you, but he ate his processed food today. He breathed out his carbon dioxide and went to the bathroom and excreted his methane gas. If you bring businesses to this area and allow them to come in, we can show you how to raise an economy. You just keep taking from us and taking from us. If you get the Federal government out of the school and put it back in the state and local governments’ hands, it will blossom. It would be a lot better education. Kudos to the ones who want the tax raise. Supv Sumner said the services in this town would be missed Rich Franks, Peruville Road, first thanked the Board for their service; he means no disrespect with his comments. He asked if the taxes at some point are going to level off or if we are destined for constant increases. If it is going to be a continuous increase, then these meetings wouldn’t be needed. He compared the Town budget to a child that wants things but, as a parent, we made due with what we had and you didn’t spend. It is like a child that wants a new bike but since you can’t afford it, they make due with a new seat. We say no to our children or find less expensive options. What happened to all that knowledge you learned. What do you tell your kids now? Do you say sure or do you ask them to wait? Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 3 of 11 Let’s try to stop and see what happens. He proposes we don’t pass the budget and see what happens. Cl. Lavine responded that the Town Board basically agrees with Mr. Franks. Going forward, there are efficiencies we can take. We have already cut back some things, like the planner. There are some frills that aren’t really frills that can be cut. Until now we had no need to do that because instead of raising taxes, we have used the reserve as a kind of tax refund. Going forward we won’t have that cushion anymore and we will know it is not there and will do as your mother would have done. R. Franks: Inevitably it will get passed. He has said this before, the people that do pull the trigger and vote for it, please wear that, you own it, you made your bed, sleep in it. He doesn’t want to meet them later and learn that the ones that pull the trigger are leaving. Wayne Schutt, Ferguson Road, said he was born and raised in Dryden all of his life. He retired this last August. If he didn’t want to be in the Town of Dryden, he would already be moved to another state. However, if you continue to raise the taxes, he will be forced to move out of the Town of Dryden now that he is on a fixed income. He is sure there are other people in the Town of Dryden on fixed incomes that feel the same. Cl. Lavine reminded everyone that the Town tax is only about 5% of the local taxes. Laura Hathaway, Gulf Hill Road, went through the budget line for line. She works at the school and they have to balance their budget and her church has to balance the budget. She is asking the Town Board to balance the budget. If we didn’t use the tax fund how much would the tax increase be? 43% higher She asked the Board to please think about the farmers who pay a large amount of tax. No farmers means no food. Do you have any plans to replenish the tax reserves? Cl. Leifer said they are using this year to make a soft landing and then they will continue to talk about how to make that work. L. Hathaway - Do you have a number in mind? What is a good balance? Supv Sumner indicated the Comptroller’s office recommendation is between 10-20% (about 15%) of the budget; right now the fund balance is 57% which is too high. L. Hathaway- A big part of the budget is sales tax. Are you prepared for that in the budget? If people can’t afford to buy things, there won’t be sales tax coming in. Cl. Sloan said the sales tax estimates have been very conservative in recent years and have, unfortunately been close to that conservative estimate. He does not see a shortfall. L. Hathaway - What are we as taxpayers looking at in 2017 since the cushion won’t be there? Cl. Lavine said they would start cutting things that are potentially cut-able. Supv Sumner said there has not been a 45-50% increase yet and she does not anticipate it next year. L. Hathaway - Can Towns go bankrupt? Yes, but not in New York State that anyone has heard of. L. Hathaway - What happens if the Town does declare bankruptcy? Supv Sumner stated that the Comptroller has a fiscal stress measurement and there are about a dozen towns in NY that are doing poorly. The Town of Dryden has scored Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 4 of 11 very well. The Town of Dryden doesn’t have any debts and we have a substantial savings. We are in sound position. L. Hathaway - But a little bit ago you said the reserves will be gone. Cl. Lavine said the excess of reserves will be gone but there will still be a cushion, a proper level. It is very clear that the Town Board is not unrealistic. That faced with having to cut back on things that are wonderful investments for our children, our families, or elderly, the Town Board is being realistic. We don’t have to make those cuts yet. L. Hathaway – Is there a baseline for salaries? She noticed the new Highway Superintendent salary didn’t drop. What happens when Bambi retires? Will the new Town Clerk get the same pay as she did after many years of service? Cl. Leifer said it was based on the experience of the person coming in. Supv Sumner said the Board doesn’t get in the way with elected officials, although this year, the Supervisor salary was decreased since she is retiring meaning there will be a newcomer in that seat. There is no written policy for employees. L. Hathaway – questioned the $35,000 lease for a dog kennel. Supv Sumner stated that the Town is required by the state to implement dog control and that includes a dog kennel. L. Hathaway asked if the Town has looked into alternatives? Supv Sumner stated that the Town has looked into alternatives. We used to use the SPCA which was much more expensive. L. Hathaway asked what contractual money is for? Supv Sumner stated that the budget has three lines: personnel, equipment and contractual. The Contractual line is for supplies, training, etc. L. Hathaway asked what street lighting we are paying for? Supv Sumner indicated that the Town has to pay for the electricity to run certain street lights. L. Hathaway asked about the $100,000 budget for recreation when it appears that $90,000 of that goes to the Recreation Director and the Recreation Coordinator. That only leaves $10,000 to spend. Supv Sumner said that the recreation budget is in a different section of the budget. Cl. Sloan stated that the Recreation Department also seeks and applies for grants, distribute funds that are granted through Cooperative Extension and they raise revenue. L. Hathaway asked about the additional $10,000 that appears as a raise for the new recreation director. Cl. Sloan indicated that is not actually a raise. The personnel line is not the salary of a position but rather the actual amount a person was paid to do that job. Since there were a few months between when the former recreation director left and the hiring of the new director, there were a couple months that no one was paid. L. Hathaway questioned the $30,000 appropriated for Varna planning. Supv Sumner replied that is in conjunction with the State TIP (Transportation Improvement Program). There is an opportunity to do some traffic improvements along route 366. 80% is funded by the State and Federal government and the $30,000 represents the Town’s 20% share. L. Hathaway asked what personnel services are? And what are the other associated lines? Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 5 of 11 Supv Sumner stated that anything with a .1 is wages and salaries, .2 is equipment and .4 is contractual. L. Hathaway asked if we freeze the budget where it is and the revenues continue to come in as anticipated, the deficit would be cut in half. Supv Sumner said the cuts would probably come from the highway budget. L. Hathaway stated that last year they had to call 911 for snow plowing. Deborah Cipolla-Dennis, 964 West Dryden Road, has been reviewing the budget and has tracked the rhetoric surrounding the budget. She is a data driven person that leads a scientific research team. She manages a $4 million budget. She doesn’t accept what is on facebook or in the papers. She analyzes the numbers herself. Facts: Current proposed tax rate is $1.76/1000, a 15 cent increase. The County was $6.86/thousand and Dryden School was $22.79/1000. The town board is proposing a modest 9% increase. A median property value in the Town of Dryden is $200,000 which means about a $30 increase. The proposed fund balance to be used is $725,000 before the previously proposed cuts which is higher than she would like to see it. She is glad they are considering the cuts. We must keep in mind that this is the budgeted use of fund balance. In past years, the town has not spent everything that was budgeted. She believes we can keep the spending down in the next year. She read on facebook that the town is facing a pending financial crisis. That is not true. The fund balance is estimated to be around $3 million. The fund balance at the end of 2016 should be $2.3 million. Between 1994 – 2002 the town had a high tax rate. In 1994, it was $2.62/1000 and remained over $2/1000 until the year 2000. The Board was raising money for a new building but the building was estimated at $3-3.5 million. Why did they end up with close to $10 million? She understands saving for a rainy day or a contingency but there isn’t any reason to have that much in savings. The Town board stole the interest on the money from the tax payers. The Comptroller’s Office recommends maintaining a 15% fund balance. We all understand that we cannot keep spending from the fund balance; that means bringing in more revenue sources and cutting the spending. The Town Board has kept tax rates at a reasonable level and has utilized the over-bloated fund balance to provide necessary services and to provide tax payers relief during the worst recession we have had in a very long time. Don Scutt, stated that he has been standing in front of the board every year about this time. He wanted to thank Joe, Mary Ann and Jason for serving on the town board. He appreciates people who stick their neck out there and feels they have not been rewarded for the work they do. With due respect, he has come to the board year after year asking that they keep spending in line. He feels the budget process is a farce, the amount of time spent on the budget is not sincere with the public. People have equated the town spending rates to the County and the school district rates. The town is not educating anyone. He has been asking the town board to decrease the tax rate by 10% which has fallen on deaf ears. One year he asked and within 35 seconds the town board passed the budget with a 3% increase without any discussion. He believes the tax cap is a good idea, it is a way to keep runaway boards from overspending. Bottom line is this – I have $60 in my pocket and it is my choice of what I do with it. The board claims it has not raised taxes in ten years. There has been every year for the past 10 years. He owns a house on Palmear Road since 1989 and he Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 6 of 11 has paid more every year to the town of Dryden. He is tired of the smugness and has asked the Town Board to start the budget process in January. If the Town exceeds the tax cap, the town residents won’t get a rebate check. Craig Schutt, Schutt Road, stated that on October 13th, he attended the budget meeting. When the Board was done discussing the budget and had decided they would present it at the next town board meeting; he overheard Cl. Sloan state that by his calculations, we have maybe 3 more years where we can use savings. Cl. Sloan then asked what they do once the savings is gone. No one responded. No one on the board had a plan. What is the plan? What are they going to do when the savings is gone? All five of you are responsible for the budget. Joe Wilson, Hunt Hill Road, is a former principal of school in Baltimore with an $8 million budget per year. At Ithaca High School he had a budget for $7 million. He also spent a year in Delaware working with part of a several hundred million dollar budget. He has also waded through the discussion that has been floating around in the political media. He has learned several things: - Under Candidate Hatfield’s town board, he was overtaxed by about 40% higher than he has paid under the current board and under Supr. Sumner’s administration. - We are not about to run out of money. We have a $3 million reserve fund and other dedicated reserve funds. - 2015 tax rate, according to the County assessor, puts Dryden 8th out of 9 towns in the county. - About 90% of the tax burden in the town is the schools. He asked if the same people go who are unhappy with the Town budget go to the school board to protest. The School budget is 20 times the Towns. - The county rate is about 4 times the Towns. He does not see any of the folks appearing there to demand a reduction. - We pay higher tax rate for fire and ambulance combined than we pay for the services Town renders. He thanked the Board for keeping the tax rate flat during the great recession. Buzz Lavine said he has heard more than one person mention that the Town has been living off of the reserves for a number of years and what are we going to do when we run out of reserves or when we are no longer comfortable using them. If we had more reserves than is logically or fiscally responsible to have, what was the Town supposed to do with the money? Should they give the money back to the residents of the town and if so, what is the best way to do that? It appears to him that the town has been giving it back by keeping taxes low. Number one, they have been giving the money back because the reserve was too much and number two what are we going to do when we get to the level where it is not rational to keep using the reserve. We will have to start cutting programs or raise taxes. That is what they are starting to do right now. He asked everyone to take those questions to heart, to look at the facts rather than making statements that don’t appear to be based on reality. Supr. Sumner noted that in the past three years spending has been cut. It was less than the three years before. Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 7 of 11 Joe Osmeloski, Dryden Road, asked what type of account is the reserve in? Is it by law that you cannot invest that money? Supr. Sumner stated that by law you cannot invest the money. The money is mostly at the First National Bank of Dryden. Bruno Schickel said he has housekeeping things to cover. He indicated a couple of inaccuracies in the budget. In the past, the last page on the budget had three columns showing the fund balance; one to show the actual from the past year, the estimate from the current year and the estimate for the end of the year of the budget. This year, there are only two columns. They have the end of 2014 and the projected for 2015. At the end of 2014, they show a balance of $2,377,309. That is actually the balance from 2013. The A fund number is wrong; it should be $1,898,585. On the second page of the budget, they show what is happening in each one of the funds. Those numbers do not match what was reported in the AUD (Annual Update Document). The bottom line is that people are saying that at the end of 2015 we will have a projected $3 million left but the reality is that it will be $2,600,000 (and change) and at the end of 2016, with no changes to the budget, there will be $1.9 million left. If you take the dedicated reserves ($741,000) out of the $1.9 million, there will be 1.2 million in undedicated reserves at the end of 2016. If you are overspending by 725,000/year, you only have a year and a half left. Supr. Sumner stated that will only happen if they spend every dollar that is budgeted which we never do. The problem is the Town Board is proposing to increase spending in 2016 by 6.7%, $357,000. They are proposing increasing the taxes by $193,000 which means you are not increasing taxes enough to cover the increase in spending. There will not be a soft landing. Last year, Dryden increased their tax rate by 11.5%. The county and every other town, expect Caroline, actually dropped their tax rates last year. There is a difference between the tax rate and the tax levy (the total amount of money you are bringing in). Since 2008 the tax levy has increased 46.5%; with the 13% increase this year, that is almost a 60% increase. The Town is facing a budget deficit. Cl. Sloan stated the tax levy increase was actually 35-40%. B. Schickel stated it is not appropriate to raise spending 6.7% this year. He has been pounding the drums for four years and it is time to wrap your arms around this. Tom Hatfield started by comparing his budget expertise with all of the others in the room. He served as the president of BOCES and had a $30 million budget. Everyone is talking about rate, let’s talk about levy. The rate is a function of assessment. The levy in 1994 was 1.2 million and in 2008 it was around a million. Today’s levy is around 1.6 million. The crisis everyone thinks is avoidable really is not. Based on Cl. Leifer’s comments in the Cortland Standard, at the end of 2016, the fund balance will be around $900,000. There is about $700,000 of dedicated funds in that total. We will have a $900,000 fund balance at the end of 2016; that is a crisis. If there is any hiccup in sales tax revenue stream, the Town will have to borrow money to meet operating costs. We deliver central services: fire, roads, emergency, etc. This is the level of government closest to the people. He thanked the Board members for their service. Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 8 of 11 Supv Sumner said the projected fund balance for 2016, if we spend every penny, will be $2.3 million. T. Hatfield stated that the fund balance, which he was grateful to have during the difficult economy, came mostly from sales taxes. The residents were not overtaxed. Supv Sumner addressed the controversy between the rate versus the levy. She has tried to maintain that to increase the rate per thousand on an ever increasing assessment would be a double whammy. She has tried to cling to keeping the rate level because assessments are going up. The total town assessment goes up for two reasons: individual assessments based on the cost of living and the addition of development. We have had a lot of growth in Dryden in the past 10 years. She believes the target budget should be x percent of what that assessment is. T. Hatfield replied that the levy is the money the community pays in taxes. There is a 1.679 million budget right now. In 1994 it was 1.2 million. Those are the real dollars the taxpayers are paying. It is going to be a tough job and he appreciates the work that they have done. Cl. Leifer said that former Highway Superintendant Jack Bush came to the Town Board two years ago about the tax rates and its history. He felt that the levy had been held at a stable level for too long. The tax cap levy was .73% this year but that doesn’t figure in the cost of a truck with all of the safety and emissions requirements. What the Town Board is being told is that inflation doesn’t apply to the basic operations of the Town. About 2/3 of budget is highway and the State has said that the town needs to pay for more road maintenance now or pay more later for reconstruction. We don’t want to over-commitment on services like trails and a recreation center because those things create more maintenance and personnel costs which we are not going to have the money for. We have to be realistic about how much it costs to run this place. There are some constituents who only care about the cost of maintaining and plowing the roads. And there are some that are concerned about snow plowing and trail maintenance. The increase in the tax rate should have been done gradually. The Town Board is trying to do is to cross the lines between what people want and what people are willing to pay for. We still want Dryden to be a place that people want to move to. The Planning Department has been cut back to 4 employees from the one time high of 8. The money set aside for the community centers was $35,000/year but now it is down to $6,000 because they didn’t need it anymore. The money had been provided for maintenance, not programming. We need to equalize our revenue with what you really need and we weren’t doing that for years. We are using the fund balance to do it slowly. It is not the end of the world, it is not a disaster. We are always going to have a fund balance, we will not spend it all the way down. That would not be healthy or smart. Cl. Lavine added that when talking about new development, jobs or housing to Dryden, there has to be a reason for them to come here. We have to make it a place that people actually want to come to. That means we have to provide services to encourage people to move here. There are services that pay off because they make it a livable place. Green space is vital for the psychology of families, for people to feel comfortable and at peace, to have a place to toss a ball with their kids or run a dog. At Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 9 of 11 a recent meeting, it was suggested that Dryden needs a dog run, maybe we do and maybe we don’t because we all have green space. She has no problem with possible cuts that have to be made going forward. She has her laundry list of cuts but to cut precipitously is foolish because the little bit of money that we give to the library or ball fields or youth groups multiplies many times over in the lives of our children and our families. B. Schickel pointed out that Dryden has the highest combined tax burden if you include the Town, county and school. Cl. Lavine stated that the school is not our fault and therefore not relevant. They only have control of the town budget. Cl. Sloan asked B. Schickel how much time he spends at School board meetings? Given that you have spent 15 minutes talking to us in the past two meetings, times that by 12, is that how much time you spend at the School board meetings given that is 2/3 of your taxes? If you are going to bring up the total tax bill please be accurate in what you are talking about. The Town is 5% of the total tax bill. B. Schickel said he is talking about the tax burden on the residents of Dryden. Cl. Lavine stated again that the Town tax is only 5%. It (the school tax) is not their problem and it doesn’t matter to them. B. Schickel said the only way to get out of the problem is to grow the tax base. They had a developer in Varna who wanted to do a project, you rezoned that area and the developer went to Lansing and built his project. The solution is growing the tax base. D. Cipolla-Dennis stated she wished that people would be more respectful and wait till they are recognized by the board. They are trying to have a meeting and trying to listen to people. Let’s be respectful of their position as well. Bruno, in reference to your point about a developer wanting to come into Dryden, that is true, development has sometimes not happened here. However, she also pointed out that to build the tax base, we want to talk about businesses. More residential development won’t increase the tax base and in fact, will cost the town money. B. Schickel said you need a combination of residential and commercial. We need to have places for people to live and force the need for more services. D. Scutt used car insurance to make a point: if your car insurance went up 25-30% in a few years, you would go someplace else. That is the same thing the Town is doing with the taxes. Cortlandville has not raised their tax rate in 10 years, why can’t we do it here. Cl. Lavine stated that is because of the astronomical development between here and Cortland. D. Scutt said that it is great that they have the development but they also had the intestinal fortitude to live in their budget. We don’t have that fortitude. Once we lose our tax rebate from New York State, the tax increase will be 60% this year. That is $185 you are taking off my dinner table this year. Cl. Sloan stated that no one in Tompkins County will be getting a tax rebate because the State is withholding the money due Tompkins County’s failure to meet their Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 10 of 11 criterion for shared services among municipalities. Tompkins County has already done a lot of consolidation and were way ahead of the State although they won’t count the past work. Cl. Sloan stated that the best comments that he heard were the questions regarding the budget. It is easy to say “cut the budget”. It is much harder to give the town board a laundry list of what they should cut. He learned last year by suggesting the Youth Services budget get cut but the people came and lined up to let him know he was wrong. Review the budget and come up with direct questions or areas for cutting rather than just chopping at the budget. D. Scutt suggested that the Town Board has woken a sleeping dog with the last two years of budgets. B. Schickel stated that in 2015 the Board increased spending over 2014 by $137,000, 2.3%. This year you are talking about an increase of $357,000 which is an increase of 6.7%. Last year you held the line reasonably well. This year you are blowing the lid off of it. You have to stiffen your back. Supv Sumner stated that she disagreed. The Board did cut several requests and even if it is budgeted, that does not mean it will be spent. Cl. Lavine asked if there area where the budget should be cut? Supv Sumner stated that you also need to look at revenue. We have brought fee structures in line with expenses, leveraged grant money, etc. D. Scutt recommended 3 budgets each year: One with a 10% reduction, one with flat spending, and one with a wish list. He recommends cutting everything by 10% and keeping a flat tax base. Cl. Sloan asked if Don was willing to negotiate a new contract with the teamsters. D. Scutt stated that five years ago he recommended the Town Board discuss the budget at every board meeting and that they create a budget committee. Neither of which have happened. James Skaley said that anyone who knows anything about investing and financing knows you have to put money out to get something. Another thing, the infrastructure of the town is the largest expense; poor infrastructure you won’t get businesses. Businesses bring in the greatest tax revenue. You have to maintain that kind of infrastructure. If you are going to go flat or 10% down we are not going to be attracting the kind of business that the Town needs. Reducing the budget will not get the Town the infrastructure that you need. Dryden is the largest Town in the County; it has the most roads. Supv Sumner added that we have the most roads but not the most water or sewer services. Town Board Budget Hearing October 28, 2015 Page 11 of 11 M. Rogers said it depends on where the money is on a particular road and what can be done on that road. He wants everyone to walk away from tonight asking whether the Town Board does the will of the people or the will of the money people? Steve Foote pointed out that Cortlandville has the route 13 corridor and Lansing has essentially the same. We need that; a place/base for businesses to grow. It is a slow, cumbersome process but we have to do that. Do you go out and seek businesses? Cortland has the IDA, do we have a way to do that? Supv Sumner said unfortunately we don’t have the planning department to do that. R. Franks said he used to live in NJ in a high density area with a lot of business. The one thing that brought in business were lower taxes. The roads weren’t great but the taxes were low and that meant business. Then the Town Board started to create more housing, parks, etc and rezoned for residential. School system was overwhelmed, taxes went up and businesses left. Cl. Lavine doesn’t feel it is fair to compare Dryden to Cortlandville development. Cortlandville has Cortland to support it. It is like Lansing and the mall are to Ithaca. Supv Sumner closed all public hearings at 8:46PM. There being no further business, the meeting was adjourned at 8:47PM. Respectfully submitted, Erin A. Bieber Deputy Town Clerk