Over in the Corning Leader, I found an article on county leaders lobbying in Albany and meeting with school officials. It looks like a bipartisan effort, including Republicans like Chemung County's Tom Santulli as well as Democrats like Tompkins County's Tim Joseph. Tompkins County isn't the only place facing tax increases because of the state's handing costs to localities:
Allegany saw a 24 percent jump in its share of the health entitlement program costs compared to last year's spending. Costs in Steuben spiked 16.5 percent and Chemung paid 20 percent more this year.
The Elmira Star-Gazette also covers the meeting in detail. (Like all links to Star-Gazette stories, that one will expire in a week or two.) Unfortunately, the Ithaca Journal covers it only with a general AP story that includes far fewer details.
Update: it looks like some Syracuse city councilors and the president of the Syracuse school board have had enough of lobbying and are turning to civil disobedience to make their case. That's a pretty serious sign of frustration.
Posted by simonstl at June 22, 2004 08:40 AM