Syracuse Mayor Stephanie Miner wants the New York state government’s money and she won’t take no for an answer.

Over the past few months, Miner has pestered Gov. Andrew Cuomo for state funds. In Miner’s Syracuse Billion proposal, submitted in late 2014, Miner requested $726 million to fix Syracuse’s aging water mains, which have already broken 100 times in 2015. It took until Feb. 4 for Cuomo to formally say no, but in a visit to the Syracuse Media Group, Cuomo did just that and offered a different approach.

“Show us how you become economically stronger and create jobs,” he said. “Then you fix your own pipes.”

The debate between city and state, public and private, and Miner and Cuomo re-intensified after Miner and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio released a statement alleging that the state is underfunding public schools. Community leaders weighed in on the ongoing debate, though neither the governor nor the mayor could be reached for comment.

Common Councilor Kathleen Joy sees both sides of the argument, but doesn’t understand why Miner won’t incorporate more of Cuomo’s ideas into her repair plans instead of asking again and again for additional funding.

Joy said that she agreed to a greater extent with the governor than with the mayor since Joy sees the lack of opportunity for prosperity as a greater threat than aging infrastructure.

“Overall, we need to embrace creating jobs and having an opportunity so if you have a job, (you can) get a better job,” Joy said. “It’s sustaining jobs so people come here and stay here.” She added that she thought there were a number of instances where the mayor’s administration had turned away economic opportunities.

Common Council President Van Robinson said he thinks that one way or the other, the city will require some state assistance. The infrastructure problems and the economic problems go hand in hand, he said, so a solution will have to involve both camps.

He said he thinks that the city can use economic development to help to fix the infrastructure. One way, he said, would be to have developers fix infrastructure as they go.

“You identify the worst (infrastructure problems) then you use whatever means available to attempt to get the money to repair them. It can be done through economic development (too),” Robinson said. “You’ll be building a new city, providing jobs and eventually a taxable piece of property. It all goes hand in glove.”

He added that there are many ways to revitalize the city’s economy and infrastructure but said, “the project cannot be undertaken by a city alone.”

Common Councilor Khalid Bey also thought that some kind of hybrid approach would work best for the city. He and the governor both thought Miner’s Syracuse Billion proposal was lacking in job development and creation, and for Bey, the biggest problem facing the city is unemployment.

“You’ve got to invest in people and people thereby pay back into the system and the system could possibly have some long term sustainability,” Bey said. “We don’t need quick fixes anymore.

“Maybe that’s the governor’s position — ‘We bail you out but you still can’t pay for it yourself, you’ll only come back tomorrow.’ I get that argument. So it has to be a simultaneous effort.”

Though he would’ve liked to see more job training and workforce development training in Miner’s proposal, Bey did support the mayor’s request that the state fulfill its money promise to the schools.

New York state promised funding to public schools. It did not meet its obligation so the Campaign for Fiscal Equity sued the state and won in 2006. The Syracuse City School District still needs the promised money. Next year’s city school budget had to be filled out with $25 million from its savings, said Suzanne Slack, the chief financial officer of the Syracuse City School District.

As costs have gone up with the increase in students, the implementation of Common Core State Standards of education and other state mandates, state aid has not gone up.

“We are still receiving the amount of money we used to receive seven years ago in 2008–09.” Slack said. “They made a promise for all this funding, but we never received that funding.”

A public education system cannot develop itself out of a financial hole, but the governor has not responded to the accusation that the state has been underfunding poor school districts for years.

But taken as a whole, Julie Cerio, the director of the Onondaga Office of Economic Development, said she thinks the county and the city are primed for economic development with just a little creative thinking and innovation.

“Our county is a great place to live, work and raise a family,” Cerio said. “We just need to continue finding creative ways to show off all that we have.”

Published on March 18, 2015 at 12:01 am

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