The outgoing legislature held a special session on Monday, December 29 at 10:30am to hold a public hearing on approving $549 million in bonds for the Oak Orchard Municipal Expansion Project. Although held at an inconvenient time, members of the public did attend and every speaker spoke out against authorizing this amount in bonding until members of the public and the legislators had more information. I recommend watching the public comments below. I spoke against fast tracking this debt onto taxpayers. You can read my comments below or watch them at the 1 hour mark in the video. County Legislator-Elect Eriksen also spoke at the public hearing. Hear his comments at 42:35 minutes.
Unfortunately, Republicans ignored the public comments given, called the people who spoke misinformed and rubber stamped this vote 12 – 5 authorizing the county to bond over half a billion dollars for this project with no oversight.
My public comment:
The fact that this public hearing, and a special session at that, during the holiday break at 10:30 in the morning is once again highlighting this legislature’s lack of desire to hear from the public or listen to the voters.
Why is the outgoing county legislature rushing forward on bonding for over half a billion dollars? The largest bond Onondaga County has ever issued was $128 million to keep wastewater out of Onondaga Lake. An issue that still continues today as Onondaga County was fined this past June for letting sewage spill into Onondaga Lake.
The full $549 million requested is over 4 times that amount with minimal details on where the money will be spent, the benefits to existing residential and commercial users or the impact to sewer rates.
In the town of Manlius we are just hoping to continue to have water heading into 2026. We know there are critical investments in infrastructure that need to be addressed. How does taking out half a billion dollar bond impact our capacity to take on other needed projects.
In the 2026-2031 Capital Improvement Plan it lists the Phase 1 – Engineering & Design cost of this project for a total of $147 million. $30 million was previously approved by the legislature. WEP needs $117 million in the summer/fall of 2026 to move forward. We have time to review this in full and take the necessary steps to consider all the impacts of taking on this amount of debt and the full scope of this project.
This rushed request to approve bonding of $549 million is an attempt to bypass the incoming county legislature and remove our checks and balances. This bonding should be tied to the project phases, state explicit goals with timelines the legislature and residents can follow on progress and changes to cost and scope. This resolution should be rejected with a clear message that the county legislature does not pass a half a billion dollars in bonding without doing due diligence.
Detailed information on benefits and impacts to residents and businesses should be a requirement. Table this resolution or vote no until we have this critical information.
Thank you.
Elaine Denton
County Legislator-Elect
Manlius, NY
