On Thursday, July 25th, the Tompkins County Shared Services Panel once again will ask for public suggestions regarding opportunities for shared services in Tompkins County, as municipal officials continue to work on the County’s 2020 County-wide Shared Services Plan.
The public hearing will be held July 25th, at 5:00 p.m., at Tompkins County Legislature Chambers, located at the Governor Daniel D. Tompkins Building, 121 E. Court Street (second floor), Ithaca.
The July 25th session is the third such public hearing to be held to seek ideas from the public regarding the Plan. The Tompkins County Shared Services Panel, chaired by County Administrator Jason Molino, is made up of all town supervisors, and city and village mayors within Tompkins County. Representatives of school districts, fire districts, and fire protection districts within the county also have been invited to participate.
County Administrator Molino, with input from the Panel, will prepare the Draft Plan by August 1st and forward it to the County Legislature for review and recommendations.
The 2017 New York State Budget first enacted the County-wide Shared Services Property Tax Savings Plan Law, which in 2018 was extended through the end of 2021. The Law requires the chief executive officer of each of the 57 counties outside of New York City to convene a panel of public officials to develop, publicly deliberate, and vote upon county-wide shared services property tax savings plans. The initiative seeks to save property taxpayers money by implementing shared services and other cooperative arrangements among governments. A Shared Services Plan is to contain actions that, when implemented, will result in new property tax savings.
The Shared Services Panel will vote on the Final Plan in September, then the County Administrator will submit the Plan, including its certified savings, to the State by the end of October.
More information about the County-wide Shared Services Initiative and development of Tompkins County’s Shared Services Plan is available at the following link: http://tompkinscountyny.gov/ctyadmin/NewYorkState_County-Wide_Shared_Services_Initiative_Home#overlay-context=