Riga Town Board delays attempts to seek Home Rule Message

Riga Town Board delays attempts
to seek Home Rule Message

During a special meeting Monday, June 18, Riga Town Board members asked special counsel Marcia Havens to notify Assemblywoman Susan John and State Senator James Alesi that the town would like to withdraw its request for the Home Rule Message for the legislative session that was to end by June 22.

Riga Town Supervisor Pamela Moore said the bill didn't contain all that the town would like and that the board needed more time to express its concerns in a different manner. Board members decided to re-work their draft and will seek the Home Rule Message again during the next session of the State Legislature.

A Home Rule Message would allow the town greater flexibility in utilizing revenues from the Mill Seat Landfill. Town leaders hope to fund capital improvement projects including public water expansion, fire protection and drainage with landfill revenues.

The Riga Town Board had held several special meetings over the past two weeks to review and make changes to a draft of the legislation that had been sent to the board from John's office.

The draft that came back from the State Legislature contained several points of concern for town board members. Most troubling was a "sunset provision" under which the law would expire on December 31, 2014. Town board members said that could jeopardize efforts to obtain bonding for long-term projects like expansion of public water. The town had hoped a revised draft of the bill would provide an exemption for the water project, but the exemption proposed did not go far enough. The final draft of the bill would have allowed money left in the reserve fund on December 31, 2014 to be used to pay for projects already approved, but Havens stated that might only get a couple more years of funding out of the agreement. "It's a little bit of a fix, not a big fix," she said.

Riga Town Board Member Robert Ottley said the town had put a lot of work into the Home Rule Message and had made a great start, but in its current form, the bill doesn't help meet the original objectives of the town. Ottley said more dialogue was needed with John and that even a trip to Albany to educate the State Assembly about the needs of the town might help. "It's really important that we get it right," Ottley said. He also said, "The board needed to do more homework and should speak with bond counsel to further the town's argument for an exemption to the sunset provision of the bill."

Town Board Member Kenneth Kuter agreed with Ottley and said the town should continue to work on refining the Home Rule Message. The community should be engaged to let Albany know about the needs of the Town of Riga. Kuter said he felt the current bill was close, but questioned if it would have the total benefit the town was looking for. Kuter said results of a study done by the town show that water is the number one issue for residents. "The money needs to be there to help off-set the burden of those costs," he said.

Moore said the town has made great progress on the Home Rule Message. She reminded town board members that other projects besides water had been put into the Message and that in particular the construction of a new fire hall would be an issue that would come before the board when work on next year's town budget begins. She said delaying the Home Rule Message would have the least effect on drainage projects which are still in an "embryonic" stage.

Town Board Member David Smith agreed with other members of the town board that the current Home Rule Message bill was better than nothing, but, "It doesn't allow us to do what we want for the town."

In deciding to defer the Home Rule Message to the next State Legislature session, Moore said the town would need to get to work "immediately" on a new draft proposal. She said more Albany-based people should be brought in to "supplement our team" and the town should workshop the issue with Havens and bond counsel. She also said John and Alesi would be back home during the summer recess and might be available to help the board.

Moore said that on the issue of water feasibility, the town needed to look into whether town residents who still have outstanding bonds on water lines already in place could be helped by the Home Rule Message. She stated town board members would need to go back and review what they originally wanted from the Home Rule Message, with the exception of a tax rebate, as they work on seeking a bill that would be of greater help to the town.

During a special meeting on June 14, the board agreed to remove a tax rebate as part of the Message. John's office had notified the town that such a rebate is prohibited by the New York State Constitution. Board members discussed Section 112 of New York State Law that would be a different way they could pursue to possibly provide similar relief.