The dirty little secret is revealed today about who pays for the Consent Order -- though it was couched in vague terms.
On July 12: "Picente said the burden will likely land on the taxpayers of the part county sewer district, which includes New Hartford, Paris and Whitestown." ...
"This is a problem everybody knew about and nobody wanted to deal with it," Picente said. "The towns and villages knew about this — it's a violation issue and we're responding to that."
On May 24: "Within the next week, Picente said he also is planning to meet with representatives from the towns and areas affected, which include areas in the villages of New York Mills, Yorkville, Whitesboro, New Hartford and Oriskany and in the towns of New Hartford and Whitestown."
Today we discover:
"Ratepayers in the sewer district, not all county residents, will have to pick up the tab if state or federal grants can't be found to defray the costs of what could become a $66 million project."
No, the cost will not fall on taxpayers of New Hartford and Whitestown, who have benefited from increases in their tax base by their new development.
The cost falls on "Ratepayers in the sewer district"
And the sewer district includes Utica.
"In the end, the executive of a county where population has dropped and business has been stagnant could ill afford to appear to be indifferent to the needs of developers who plan to add jobs and bolster New Hartford's and Whitestown's property tax base."
Mr. Picente does developers' bidding. He does New Hartford's bidding. He does Whitetown's bidding.
But he sends the Bill to the People of Utica.
And the Utica legislators were either too stupid or too politically connected to see that their constituents were going to get screwed.
Nothing short of complete merger of all the jurisdictions of Greater Utica can make this fair.
10 comments:
You seem to be well informed on most issues, but I thonk you are wrong on this one. Your post in the OD and on your blog state that Utica is included in the part-county sewer district that will pay for the improvements. There may be some areas of west Utica that are included in the district, but a "part-county" sewer district is just that. It only includes properties whose sewer lines are connected to the main that runs to the pumping station causing the problem. Most of Utica's residences aren't part of that sewer district.
We serve "the state" now, remember? :(
The people who have "benefited from increases in their tax base by new development" have been those who have built the developments, the politicians, and their cronies. As a resident, I haven't seen any benefit to all this new development except confiscatory taxes, more drug traffic, and problems with storm runoff.
To Anonymous, to my knowledge there is no separate district for the region served by the Sauquoit Creek pump station. "Part-County" sewer district refers to the fact that not all of Oneida County is served by the sewer system.
If I am wrong, then Mr. Picente should be identifying which municipalities connected to the County system will NOT be paying for the cost. If he does, I will post the clarification.
Hey! (different anonymous here) Peeing and pooping cost money, and not everybody pees or poops into the sewer system. Those that do should pay, and those that don't ...shouldn't. BTW, you aren't so myopic to think that only NH and Whitestown have benefited from development, are you? For every dollar NH takes in property taxes, the county takes about 4! And sales tax? The county rapes NH, taking well over 25 million out of NH alone in sales tax (though Carvelli won't admit it publicly) and gives them back ...5 to 6 mil. And the sales tax distribution goes to places like Oriskany Falls, Ava, Florence, etc that pay nothing to support NH services, so either everybody has benefited and should pay or just the sewer users should pay. I opt for the latter, not the former. But, if everybody has to pay, then make it everybody, like Rome too. Let's see how the Rome influence (RoAnn, Joe, Tony, Jerry et al) would like that. And the next time Jamal is cashing his food stamps for a bottle of Gallo down in Cornhill, remember who paid for his social services bill too. Oneida County, that's who,and they already took the money from NH to do it... so again --- either the sewer users alone pay, or everybody. And everybody means everybody, since ...everybody ...benefited.
So I guess the lawbreakers (the county and the towns who did not look at the environmental impact of what they were doing) get to keep the benefits of their wrongdoing by passing the fines and the cost of fixing the problem on to people who use water. . . . Hmmm . . .
The people of the county will pay for County services partially through sales taxes whether the sales are made in NH or elsewhere. What is wrong is that the suburbs are now locking into a revenue stream that they keep to themselves -- now to be subsidized by poor people living in Utica paying sewer fees -- that enables NH to build self indulgent Bark Parks and -- for some -- police stations "reflecting the community's affluence." The poor subsidizing the rich -- how perverted.
"The county rapes NH, taking well over 25 million out of NH alone in sales tax (though Carvelli won't admit it publicly) and gives them back ...5 to 6 mil. And the sales tax distribution goes to places like Oriskany Falls, Ava, Florence, etc that pay nothing to support NH services"
This writer makes it sound like the sales taxes paid in New Hartford come only from New Hartford residents. It doesn't. The same benefactors of the sales tax distribution are the ones spending the money in New Hartford. They deserve every penny they get back from the countys bloated sales tax. In the meantime, if New Hartford stopped spending like complete fools, maybe they wouldn't have such a tax burden to deal with in the first place. Why on earth do they have their own 911 facility?
Let's not forget, there is no way the county is not going to make everyone pay - one way or another. For instance did you know that a 1/4 of a percent of the mortgage recording tax goes to CDTA bus service. That means that taxpayers in the rural parts of the county are paying for bus service they do not recieve. Any bets something similar will rear its ugly head when it comes time to pay for this fiasco?
I too, wondered why the Town of New Hartford and 911 has not been removed from the Town's Safety Bldg. Is this another fiefdom being created by Police Chief, Ray Philo?
After all, one merely has to look at their recently signed police contract by none other than Earle C. Greed, Supervisor, Town of New Hartford. I wonder how much this will cost the taxpayers, especially, the Part-Town residents of New York Mills. Their next tax bill will be a doozy.
Sorry for straying off topic, however, I could not help myself when reading about all the stupid spending being approved by the Town's elected officials. What a bunch of screwballs we have in office.
Im leaving NY in 45 days and I can't wait to get the hell out of here and stop being taxed up my nose. Worst state in the country and worst county in the state. This utican wont be paying for this crap, they can all go screw themselves.
How about the new $30-50 thousand dollar "License Plate Grabber" on top of one of the New Hartford Police's cars.
Did anyone do a cost/use workup on that "Police Toy"?
Or did NH slip that one in a budget too?
Its clear that NH and Greed will buy whatever they want, whether its merited or not.
Oneida County just bought one also. Shame! 50k so they can see who's registered or not. What about long overdue vests and dashcams?
Oh yeah, they forgot those again...
The comment: >> This writer makes it sound like the sales taxes paid in New Hartford come only from New Hartford residents. It doesn't. The same benefactors of the sales tax distribution are the ones spending the money in New Hartford. They deserve every penny they get back from the countys bloated sales tax.
The answer: You are right, sales tax pours into NH from all over - but only the NH resident gets the pleasure of paying for the services that make it possible (Police, highway, fire) --and that, in a nutshell, is why NH is entitled to a larger portion than Ava or Florence who, last time I checked, don't pay 5 cents for NH Police salaries, etc.
Get real. Of course NH can't keep it all, but it is entitled to a larger portion for keeping it going.
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