On May 6th, Republicans on the county legislature voted to spend $27 million of taxpayer dollars to purchase land for private companies with no details on if, when, or how taxpayers will be repaid. I made a public comment against this proposal which you can read and watch below. I also wrote a letter to the editor sharing my concerns.
(The discussion of the $27 million starts at 58:00.)
Good afternoon, I am Elaine Denton and I live in the Town of Manlius. I am here today to ask you to vote no on giving OCIDA another $27 million dollars of taxpayers money to buy land for private companies. There is a lot to do to prepare for Micron. From building housing, replacing & upgrading water pipes, roads, drainage infrastructure, workforce training, and more. After decades of neglect, we need to catch up and get our community ready. We need to focus on what our residents need.
The only way this historic investment in CNY works is if the residents of Onondaga County are taken care of. We need clean, healthy water to drink, safe, affordable housing to live in, reliable transportation to jobs that are already here and coming, affordable childcare and a sustainable environment.
There are so many ways $27 million could help our community. It could be used to build 3 bedroom apartments that are sorely lacking in Onondaga County. If the county can spend over $100 million dollars to build an aquarium for fish, we should be able to fill this need and build family friendly apartments helping with family homelessness.
Or let’s send checks to the over 60,000 residents living in poverty in Onondaga County. We saw how stimulus payments lifted millions out of poverty during the pandemic. Let’s actually reduce poverty in our community. Stimulus money stays right here in our community because people use it to pay for living expenses. Onondaga County did this in 2022 sending seniors a one time check of $200.
My point is there are more important issues to use this money for than being a real estate company for businesses. We have resources to help companies locate here without having to buy their property for them. We need to take care of our residents which will in turn attract more people and businesses.
Let’s remember the report of the economic impact New York State completed in 2022 which reported one of the biggest categories for new jobs will be government jobs. Local and state governments will employ as many as Micron suppliers. We can’t keep giving tax breaks and taxpayer’s money out without returns because we are going to need it to fund future jobs and services.
Giving $27 million dollars out with no metrics for success and no details on if, when or how taxpayers will be paid back does not make sense. Let’s learn from our past mistakes and let’s put this money into our community not corporations, please vote no.
Thank you.
References
- https://www.syracuse.com/micron/2025/04/ocwa-launches-biggest-upgrade-ever-to-double-water-supply-for-micron-spurred-growth-but-who-will-pay.html
- https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/onondagacountynewyork/PST045224
- https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2021/09/who-was-lifted-out-of-poverty-by-stimulus-payments.html
- https://www.syracuse.com/news/2022/07/onondaga-county-to-send-senior-citizens-200-if-they-qualify-for-enhanced-star.html
- https://www.syracuse.com/business/2023/12/those-50000-jobs-micron-could-create-in-new-york-we-dug-into-what-that-really-means.html
