Dear Editor,
This is in response to the writer in the Readers’ Column section in regard to Tioga County Transit and who wants to hang out the Tioga County Legislators as being “overpaid fat cats and unresponsive” to the needs of the county taxpayers.
First, you need to look at your recent county property tax rate, where in unity with a majority of our county local governments, held their tax rates to under the 2 percent mandated tax cap. One of the key reasons many residents received a property tax credit refund check this year was because the elected officials in our county, towns and villages have worked hard to reach outside of their chambers, review and put in place shared service agreements to control costs and expenditures. When local governments work in tandem with service agencies and non-profits such is Rural Health Network of S.C.N.Y., our county, towns and villages are far more fiscally sound compared to many in our state because our local legislators do take seriously the funding of what we the taxpayers can afford to pay, rather than finance it out on the next generation of taxpayers. With state mandates placed on them, it’s like rolling a boulder up hill on an incline plane.
Apples to Apples: C Tran of Chemung County is able to operate at a different level than Tioga County Transit ever could attain, with or without state funding. As a county having a population base of 87,700 to draw riders from with centralized areas in the City of Elmira at 28,800 and 11,145 in Corning. Where Tioga County’s population base is 51,125, spread out in small communities with the majority living in rural to very rural settings and with the largest population center of 3,775 being the Village of Owego.
On point, the Tioga County Transit System was an originated service provided by Social Services with the majority of State Funding coming into the county’s Medicaid Department to facilitate and provide transportation to those who received county and state public services.
When Albany canceled Medicaid Funding to the county, Tioga Transit was de-funded for preference of a state centralized “taxi cab on call system”. The lions’ share of money for a “public” transportation system was removed from the county budget. The reality of electing to continue a marginal bus system in need of heavy capital investment and with no further State funding would have landed the total bill on the doorstep of County taxpayers either through property tax or sales tax revenue.
Up until then, “Other riders”, non-public usage riders who were using the buses actually did so as a benefit and at the “largesse of the State Medicaid funding”. Removal of these dollars proved the operation too costly due to too few riders, which could cover even a minimal amount of operations and labor. The loss of those expanded service routes was/is a definite loss to those who used it for basic transportation going to locations such as Ithaca, Dryden etc.
The reality is that without State Medicaid money, the main source of funding, after a test year, the ridership to outlying areas was never even near revenue neutral and proved to be an unsustainable expense. The ability for Tioga County legislators and non-profits, as is Rural Health Network of S.C.N.Y, is to be commended for their hand-in-hand initiatives with C-Tran of Chemung County to be able to replicate the original intent to provide and deliver on these services.
Tax Revenue is not the same as Grant Funding. Director Jack Salo of Rural Health Network of S.C.N.Y (non-profit organization), which are able to write for funding grants to augment public services stated, “C TRAN service which originally started the Elmira to Owego Route happened at the time Tioga County’s Ride Tioga transit service discontinued. With the loss of Tioga County’s public transportation system it is critically important that non-profit health and human service transportation programs serving Tioga residents be supported and expanded when possible.”
Down the road, perhaps the next step may take the form of another collaborative initiative of a non-profit creating a network of small van buses and drivers to cover pick up points throughout the county where those in need of basic transportation can get into the Village of Owego or City of Ithaca or Danby area to connect to the C-Tran or T-Cat schedule.
As a taxpayer, it’s time to say thank-you to your local legislators, directors, and volunteers of non-profits who continue to pick up the aftermath left by those in Albany. If you want to throw stones at the legislature, start there.
Sincerely,
Florence Alpert
Candor, N.Y.
