Last night the Chemung County Legislature passed a resolution by a vote of 10-5 to increase legislative salaries by 3%. Legislators Rick Madl, Marty Chalk, Bill Fairchild, Peggy Woodard and Paul Collins all voted against it.
During the meeting’s public comment period Tony Pucci, a retired English teacher who ran for a seat on the legislature in last November’s election, and I each spoke against the pay raises, arguing they are inappropriate at a time when our community is facing significant fiscal stress coupled with a declining population, and the combination of high salaries and benefits are inconsistent with other similarly situated counties in upstate (more…)
Note: Going forward I will provide updates about what is happening in Chemung County government every Thursday and will add other posts throughout the week as pressing issues arise. I am in the process of updating the Chemung County Matters website to include links to all Agendas, Minutes and other noteworthy items from the Chemung County Legislature as well as the Elmira and Big Flats Town Boards, the two municipalities located within the 7th Legislative District.
Things are certainly abuzz within Chemung County government as Chris Moss, the newly elected County Executive, along with seven newly elected legislators prepare to take office in less than one month. To this point Moss and his transition team (a list of members is found here) has largely operated independently from the new legislature, something that bodes well for the desire of many people for greater separation between the two branches. The overall tenor among the new and returning elected officials seems (more…)
I took last week off to spend time with my family after the election and am working hard to get back up to speed on many things that have transpired since November 5th. I intend to keep this blog going (with some much-needed cosmetic changes…coming soon!) while I serve as a member of the Chemung County Legislature to help keep people informed of the issues affecting our community. As always, everyone is invited to share information and opinions directly on the blog or on social media in hopes of generating productive discussions about ways we can improve the way Chemung County does business.
Chemung County Budget
The current Legislature has held two workshops and a public hearing to discuss its proposed 2019 budget. A special meeting to vote on the proposed 2019 budget will be held on November 26th at 7:30 pm on the Hazlett Building’s 5th floor following the (more…)
Yesterday Chemung County Executive Tom Santulli invited the media, sitting legislators and the public to a presentation where he unveiled the county’s proposed 2019 budget. The proposed budget can be found here.
In general, the budget and accompanying letter from Santulli paint a mixed picture for Chemung County. The budget calls for the 14th straight year without a tax increase — ostensibly a good thing — but does not seem to include ways to help many of the struggling municipalities, most notably the City of Elmira.
With respect to sales tax allocation, Santulli’s letter sets forth the county’s perspective of (more…)
Chemung County residents who suffered damage to their homes due to flooding that occurred from August 13-15 are eligible for grants worth up to $50,000.
According to a US News and World Report article published on Saturday, the grant money comes from federal sources and is being administered by New York state.
The application to apply for a grant is located here. Applications will be accepted from today through February 4, 2019.
Potential applicants should direct all questions to Arbor Housing and Development at (607) 654-7487 x 2049 or by email at Info@arbordevelopment.org.
The purpose of this blog is to promote a discussion of issues affecting Chemung County. With November 6th fast approaching, and an unprecedented number of people running for local office, the elections themselves are relevant to that discussion right now. Even though there are many contested races, the race in the 7th District is clearly the one I know best.
I am incredibly proud of the positive, hopeful and diverse characteristics of my campaign team. Our team is comprised of members of many different political parties, along with folks who are not affiliated with a party at all, and it includes many people who have never been involved with political activities in their lives. We have men, women, retirees, new parents, children, teachers, business leaders, engineers, lawyers, doctors, nurses, firefighters, police officers, stay-at-home moms and dads, caregivers and many others all working together for one singular purpose: to help improve Chemung County. There is no question people want more for our community, and the actions of these volunteers and hundreds of others out there campaigning for local candidates across the area shows we are willing to hard to bring about the change we need.
Our team has been at it since February 23, 2018, when we assembled for the first time on a cold winter night at Charlie’s Cafe to kick things off.
A month later we formally announced our campaign, and unveiled a video featuring members of the community talking about why they support our efforts. (more…)
Today’s Star Gazette featured two starkly different visions of Chemung County’s future. Unfortunately, the Star Gazette recently stopped publishing its Opinion page online, meaning that many residents have not had a chance to read them.
One piece, co-authored by me and Tony Pucci, a candidate for legislature in the First District, pushes for transparency and cooperation, particularly when it comes to financial arrangements among Chemung County, the City of Elmira, and the towns and villages. This vision of an open, responsive and cohesive local government has been central to each of our campaigns since we decided to run nearly a year ago. The piece was previously featured in a blog post found here, and is embedded below.
2018 has been a great year for Chemung County. With an unprecedented number of candidates running for local office, a much needed examination of how our government functions is underway. It has encouraged many serious discussions about who we are and how we can improve the way business is done in our community.
Unfortunately, the tenor of these discussions has recently begun to shift, moving away from a valuable assessment of the issues to personal attacks on the candidates. With divisiveness dominating political discourse at the state and national levels, we should try as hard as we can to avoid falling into a similar pattern here.
I believe anyone who runs for local office deserves respect, as I have learned firsthand (more…)
The following was post was submitted to the Star Gazette as a Your Turn editorial on October 12, 2018 by me (Christina Sonsire) and Tony Pucci, candidates for Chemung County Legislature.
On October 9th, we attended a meeting of the Chemung County Legislature during which it voted to change the way sales tax revenue is shared between the county and its municipalities.*
The issue of whether sales tax revenue is shared in the most economically sound way for our community has been hotly debated since 2013. At that time, Chemung County was facing significant fiscal hardships. Arguing that all municipalities aside from the City of Elmira had too much money in the bank, the County enacted a plan that took money from these municipalities in order to shore up its own finances.
The plan worked in part. The County was able to avoid a tax increase; however, many of the municipalities began to experience significant financial stress.
The Chemung County Matters blog exists to help promote discussions about local issues. The views expressed by guest bloggers do not necessarily reflect my own, but are rather shared here in order to provide information and hopefully stimulate ideas.
Last night the Chemung County Legislature voted 14-2 in favor of a new sales tax plan, with only Peggy Woodard (District 8) and Rodney Strange (District 15) voting no.
The old plan has been under intense scrutiny since it was passed in 2013 for taking resources from the towns, villages and City of Elmira, causing many of them to suffer fiscal hardships.
Numerous candidates for local office have strenuously advocated for a change in the way sales tax monies are allocated between the county and its municipalities, something that is undoubtedly part of the decision of county leaders to change course.
However, the new plan has many problems as well.
Prior to the vote, I offered comments to the sitting legislature about new plan as it relates (more…)
