It has been two years since I agreed to apply whatever management and leadership skills I have to the greater good of my hometown. I was ran for and was elected to the City Council.
To be encouraging, for the first time in two years I am starting to see signs of hope that Geneva may be willing to attack its existential problems. We have a new mayor demonstrating true leadership and using his fiscal acumen to peel back the curtain on the financial challenges beginning to strangle both the City of Geneva and its surrounding towns. We have a new council that, thus far, has shown a willingness to double its monthly meetings and attend special efforts targeting finances, housing, as well as development and, eventually, charter changes that are needed to modernize our efforts.
Still, despite these signs of hope, Mayor Jim Cecere’s efforts are beginning to clarify the depth and complexity of local government challenges. It is not pretty.
Just recently, with Cecere’s direction, departing City Manager Amie Hendrix admitted that funding “status quo” services for 2027 would require a 20% tax increase for the City. That would be on top of municipal taxes that are nearly 50% higher than any other municipality in Ontario County today.
Clearly, not a choice any fiscal authority would advise.
Even in a high-tax state such as New York, Geneva’s fiscal challenges are daunting. In many ways, Geneva is a mini-Detroit, the famous “donut hole” of the rust belt. Detroit was a city abandoned by much of its population that moved to lovely, better-financed and lower-taxed suburbs.
In a micro-way, Geneva has followed a similar path. It was once the heart of a local economy that served the Seneca Army Depot, local industries and its colleges and workforce. Over the last few decades the city has lost population to surrounding towns — all of which offer lower taxes while continuing to rely on Geneva’s amenities, including schools, water, sewer, and indirect support from the city’s professional fire and police services.
In noble, almost heroic ways, Geneva has struggled to maintain city services while its population declined and its property values slumbered. The result was predictable — massively increased debt, reduced services and municipal taxes that lead Ontario County. Today, Geneva’s true indebtedness hovers near $80 million as the cost of maintaining the size and quality of our police, fire and public works services continues to grow exponentially.
I pledge to support Mayor Cecere as he leads a new approach to longstanding problems. The remedies may cause some pain. The answers will undoubtedly rile some factions in a city that has demonstrated consistent unwillingness to confront painful issues.
Here are examples of contentious issues that stand in our way and the potential for addressing them as a wider community:
• Most land for expansion of greater Geneva’s population rests not in the city but in surrounding towns. As we speak, new proposals for hundreds of new housing units along Carter Road and elsewhere in surrounding towns, rest with builders hoping to gain access to the city’s water and sewer plants. Further, the presence of professional city fire and police services impact the ultimate success of that growth and the insurance rates charged to these new developments. Yet, the City of Geneva and the Town of Geneva play host to seven fire companies that respond to many calls together and an Ontario County Sheriff’s Department that counts on the Geneva Police Department when their units are too distant from an urgent call in the towns.
• Talks currently underway for expired water and sewer rates charged to the Town of Geneva will need to be adjusted to better reimburse the city for its management and maintenance of these crucial water and sewer services. A building program underway at the sewer plant could cost the City of Geneva $17 million even though most of that spending will benefit expansion in the Town of Geneva and other surrounding communities. Clearly, agreements for consolidated services with the City and Town of Geneva would eliminate duplication and improve services.
• Both the City of Geneva and Ontario County operate duplicate Industrial Development Agencies that negotiate tax breaks for new housing and industrial projects that promise to bring jobs to our region. Interestingly, both IDAs are burdened by projects that drain their resources sustaining questionable legacy projects; the county IDA spends money on an airport it does not want while the Geneva IDA spends hundreds of thousands of dollars on the old American Can property that certainly has produced more bills than revenue for decades. Clearly, a merger of this function would improve political oversight and assure the tax breaks we are giving are efficient and effective across the county.
• Across rural and urban America, strains on government resources have spurred municipal service mergers to eliminate duplication and improve services. Countywide education, police and fire services have saved on administration and professionalized services between rural and urban towns. Consolidated police, fire and school administrative services are being pursued to reduce costs and improve services.
It is clear Geneva is at a tipping point. As it searches for a new city manager, it also needs to reconsider what it expects from this new hire. It can continue pursuing a status quo that relies on taxing the elderly and the poor out of their homes and letting the donut hole grow. It could also use its assets to encourage surrounding communities and the county to share services in ways that eliminate duplication and lower taxes and fees for all. Trying to sustain the status quo lets the donut hole grow with taxes that make home renovations or in-fill housing projects economically unsustainable.
Unless we can see real collaboration, I personally will not vote to continue the low-cost access to the city’s water and sewer plants. I will support ending “mutual aid” that simply takes city assets without sharing the real costs. Residents of the Town of Geneva or surrounding towns can be required to come directly to the city to establish their water or sewer accounts or they can dig septic tanks next to the new drinking wells they will need if agreements can’t be achieved between the towns and city themselves.
The status quo is truly unfair. It shifts tax burdens and service costs to a city that houses most of the communities’ non-profits and virtually all of its working class. It has eaten away at a diverse and architecturally rich housing stock. It has made it hard to attract new doctors, professors and other professionals to live where they work.
Much rests on Mayor Cecere’s efforts to persuade city residents, its civic workforce and its surrounding political entities to reconsider long-standing traditions.
Geneva remains at the center of a rising region. The recent increases in local real estate assessments have reduced the difference between overall taxes in the City and the Town of Geneva. The question remains whether local leaders can seek new approaches built on solid economics that can sustain government services in greater Geneva.