Facing the challenges of 2024

It’s been a year of achievement for the Tompkins County Legislature, but we face many challenges ahead in 2024. Here are a few important items from the County Budget to show how we’re prioritizing your tax dollars.

The Community Fund was established in 2022 to manage Federal American Rescue Plan Act funds in Tompkins County. Not everyone supported the concept, with some thinking it would be better to simply dump this windfall into the general fund. However, others of us believed that the money should go to the community and employers that were damaged because of the shutdown. In the end, it was negotiated that $7 million would go into the Community Fund and an application process was established.  Did everyone agree how the funds were awarded? Of course not, but it is clear that the fund has allowed us to bring the many talents of our community together to make life in Tompkins County better… and hopefully a little easier as we continue to recover from the Covid-19 shutdown.

This year, many of these projects will be coming online. While we couldn’t fund everything on everyone’s Wish List, we funded a number of projects that will make a positive difference for years to come.

A shortage of childcare is a consistent concern for families in Tompkins. That’s why we allotted $400,000 to Coddington Road Center and $13,450 to East Ithaca Preschool to boost childcare.  The Greater Ithaca Activity Center, a cornerstone of our community for young people, was awarded nearly $50,000 for their Robin Fund, which helps those experiencing sudden hardships like an emergency mortgage payment or paying for summer programs or special clothing needs. $150,000 went to the Village at Ithaca to expand their West End space to meet growing needs. We accomplished these goals through a team effort, and the County Legislature continues to monitor it closely through the Community Recovery Fund Committee (I’m proud to serve as a member).

Considering the mental health crisis facing our country and our county, the biggest expenditure went to Cayuga Health Systems for the creation of a 20-bed Mental Health Stabilization Unit. This $1.5 million expenditure of ARPA money is leveraging a much larger investment by the hospital. It’s a partnership that will help us treat those struggling with mental illness.

In this year’s budget, we increased support for our rural libraries and, for the third year, continued my Parks Initiative, which offers grants to your town, village, and city parks. Last year, these funds paid for water drinking improvements at Cass Park, provided trees in the East Ithaca Nature Preserve and in Myers Park in Lansing, paid for an ADA-compliant parking lot in Jacksonville Park in Ulysses, and repaired stonework in Sunset Park in the Town of Ithaca. In Freeville, it helped repair and repaint a pavilion and repair basketball hoops. In Trumansburg, it created a pollinator garden while in Danby, a boardwalk was revitalized. In Dryden it helped with the rail trail and in Enfield and Lansing, it helped with a basketball court and playground equipment. Newfield installed WIFI and safety cameras at Newfield Community Park. Successes all around. It’s an initiative that punches above its weight.

Our budget also starts a Rapid Response Medical Unit and we received great news last week when 90% of the first year’s cost will be picked up by the State, thanks to the work of Deputy County Administrator Bridgette Nugent and Joe Milliman and Mike Stitley from the Department of Emergency Response.

Why is this new program significant (aside from its potential to save lives)? It’s a realization that, while we could more wholly rely on emergency services volunteers in the past, we simply don’t have enough volunteers to manage certain functions any longer. So, while this new program helps solve a problem, we also must recognize our volunteer first responders for all they do giving their time: missed birthdays, bedtime tuck-ins, their kids’ games, date night, and so on.

We’re doing our best to be careful with how the County Legislature allocates your money.  Much of your taxes are eaten up by Albany mandates and last year the State withheld $1.5 million in federal Medicaid reimbursement money. That money must be made up in the property tax, essentially taking authority from the county and “giving” it to Albany. For the long term, I hope Albany will get better at recognizing the essential role county’s play as a government close to the people.