This week at our Public Safety committee, one of our legislators put forward a resolution to discontinue road patrol services throughout the county as an opportunity to save the County money.  Towns without police service would be required to pay a far larger share of the road patrol costs on a contract basis. The argument is that some towns already have police services while other towns use the consolidated police service provided by the County. In my mind, this is exactly the opposite direction our towns should be going. For years, the County Sheriff has provided exemplary service to the Town of Salina. There has been a local presence created by having a substation in town and we have avoided the high cost of duplicative police service paid for by many other towns.  Recently, the Town of Clay had embraced this model to much success. 

I believe the unintended consequence of this resolution would be to encourage new town police departments. It would not be unusual for local government to say, “If we are going to pay for it, we want to control it.”  If you examine most budgets, police service is often among the fastest growing and most expensive services provided at the town level. I believe the models we have in Salina and Clay provide a far more cost effective option.

I would be very interested in your thoughts on this issue. At a time most of us are looking to share services and reduce costs, this appears to be taking us in the wrong direction.

The newspaper has done a good job outlining one argument in the OTB debate. There is however, another perspective. Currently, every county surrounding Onondaga collects revenue from OTB. It is estimated Onondaga County residents are already wagering $20 million dollars on OTB in other counties. In recent years, opportunities to gamble have proliferated in every neighborhood. Examples are the NYS lottery, “Quick Draw” in restaurants, internet gambling, phone bets, TV betting and the Turning Stone Casino. As negative as this may be to some, it is a fact. We receive no revenue from any of it.

Onondaga County is facing an estimated budget shortfall of $50 million dollars.  Last year we cut programs to the bone and were forced to eliminate over 200 positions to close an $11million deficit.  Without new revenue, the choices become grim. Residents have made it crystal clear that property tax hikes in this economy are unacceptable. That means continued cuts to our services. So much of what we do is mandated and as a result cuts will need to come primarily from “quality of life” areas. 

• How many law enforcement positions do we eliminate? 
• Which parks do we close?
• Do we get rid of the elephants? 
• Carpenters Brook? 
• The Symphony? 
• How many in our community will lose their jobs?

This new revenue would give us an opportunity to continue to support the areas that lend vibrancy and color to our region. Studies tell us that they are also key factors in helping our region thrive and grow. Without new revenue, all of these face certain cuts.

It is all about choices. People make their own decisions about whether they want to go to an OTB parlor. They have no choice as to whether they pay their property tax bill.