All of the Presidents of HWS have lived in that house. Quit targeting President Gearan. He and his wife have done much for this community.

is it true that during his time at HWS that $6 million worth of property on south main street alone has been taken OFF the tax rolls when the college purchased those properties?

could this be one of the reasons why geneva has the highest poverty rate in all of ontario county?

is it true that he/hws wanted to sue the city of geneva for trying to bring forth the benefits assessment district that would give relief to the over taxed homeowners in the city of geneva all while planning a $25 million performance center in his name?




strange that HWS has a new $25 million performance center but just across the street you have children living in poverty

explain the logic in that?

HWS was not going to sue, but they were going to fight it in court. And they were joined by every church and most of the not-for-profits in the city. The hospital hired its own lawyers.

What killed the plan you were talking about was the fact that not all homeowners would have gotten a lower tax rate. As an example, anyone living on a corner lot would have seen their taxes go up. At least a couple of Council members said that unless every home owner paid less in tax, they would not vote for the benefit assessment plan.

To eliminate poverty, you need jobs.

The high taxes in the city are due to the city providing expensive services to Town of Geneva residents, but not getting the tax revenue to cover the costs.

One solution would be to dissolve the city and combine it into the town. Lyons and Seneca Falls did it, Rushville is working on it. The state is offering big incentives to consolidate government functions. Every small-government proponent should be all over this idea.

HWS was resistant to all property owners paying their fair share of city services?
how honorable of HWS...



and there is a 25% poverty rate in the city of geneva
must be all those entities do not realize that fact



are you suggesting that resistance from HWS and the other 60% tax exempt entities did not 'kill' the plan?



taxes would have gone down for all taxpaying homeowners



do you agree with that flawed theory?



and how many businesses want to locate in a city where nearly 70% of the properties are off the tax rolls?

so lets see if we understand why a 'couple of council members' voted it down

if all property owners (100%) pay into the city budget then ALL the current non tax exempt taxpayers (about 30%) taxes would go DOWN

not sure why the taxes would go up for the (about 30%) current non tax exempt property homeowners if ALL (100%) property owners paid into the city budget

the taxes would have gone down for all current property owners
their benefits assessment amount would have been applied




their taxes would have gone down

their benefits assessment may have been higher compared to a property owner not on a corner lot

but there is a simple solution -

either

the frontage on the corner lot could have the full benefits asseessment applied
and the side street portion of the corner lot could have had a lower benefits assessment applied - at 80%, 70%, 60% or 50%... of the benefits assessment

or

the total frontage and side street portion could be totaled and calculated not at 100% of the benefits assessment but at a lower rate - 90%, 80%, 70%...

a simple fix that would have allowed ALL property owners to share the cost of city services

The only service I know the City supplies to the Town is that some (not all) Town residents do get city water. The agreement is decades old and difference in rates is being done away with. Seneca Falls and Lyons were Villages and Geneva is a City, it is much more complicated to dissolve a City.

HWS was worried about paying a "street benefit". They own property on South Main, Pultney, Hamilton and St. Clare and that is a lot of frontage. But it was not only HWS, the Station, Geneva General, and every not-for-profit was involved and they did not want this charge either. The pastors of both the Roman Catholic and Presbyterian churches made appearances in front of Council in opposition and others contacted their own Council members. Some of them actually said that they would have to withdraw from community programs or even close their doors if this went through.

There were various rates discussed. One for single family owner occupied, one for multiple family residences, corner properties getting a "discount" on one of the street fronts, and a special rate for other not-for-profits. And what about HWS and their corner properties? They had to be included or the district would be illegal.

All of this became too complicated to be workable.

Some property owners would have paid more under this plan. This is not theoretical as specific properties were actually identified.

Here is an example I knew of: an elderly couple living in a multiple family residence on a corner lot, one side of which was a double lot. They did not have the rental unit rented, but they were still listed as multiple family on the tax rolls. Because of their age, military service, etc. they were taxed at less than assessed value, but they would have gone away with the benefit district.

Some members of the Council said they would support this benefit district only if every one's taxes decreased and that was not going to happen, but in the end it was the complexity of trying to figure out who what pay which rates that defeated this plan.

I hope this answers some of the questions.

so the city dropped the plan because one home owner living in a multi family did want to rent out their home... sound illogical

options

1) rent out the other half of the home to pay for their benefits assessment - one or two months worth of rent would have paid for their benefits assessment and the other 10 months of rent would have been going into their pockets as profit

2) sell the home and move to a single family home not on a corner lot

but yet they spent $25 million for a performance center, spent millions to build their football field / stadium / athletic center, spent millions buying taxable properties on south main street, hamilton street, st. clair and taking them off the tax rolls, spent a large sum of money to build a 10 foot tall wrought iron fence with large brick colums (every 10 feet) around the perimeter of their campus

have hws sell those properties they have concerns with and put them back on the tax rolls if their $200 million endowment is in such financial crisis

Note - 25% poverty rate in the city of geneva

HWS is worried about a 'street benefit'

the local newspaper had an article that HWS has had numerous calls PER DAY for false fire alarms because HWS does not want to put in a system to root out the false alarm calls

how about the city charge HWS a $20,000 charge PER false alarm calls

a false alarm call puts the fire/emergency responders at risk, it puts at risk ACTUAL emergencies situtations that should be handled over a false alarm from HWS

10 false alarms per day from HWS at $20,000 per call multiplied by 365 days in year = $73,000,000

10 x $20,000 X 365 = $73,000,000

the city could give HWS a volume discount and only charge them for half or $36,500,00

that pays for the yearly city budget with a sizable surplus

or HWS could spend some money to correct their false alarm problems and it would save the city money and not put emergency responders at risk

howz about this idea

have hws president gearan set up a small fire station on hws campus

when ever there is an emergency on hws campus their fire station will be the first responder

the response time will be almost immediate because they will be located on campus and not the other side of the city like the current fire stations

the city fire station response time is greatly reduced because they have to tend with traffic either on main/south main or pulteney street - both high traffic streets --- the traffic problems are a result of hws not providing enough parking for their staff and students (whoda thunk )


if the hws fire department needs assistance after arriving on a call then the hws 'fire chief' can call to the city with details

this would eliminate false alarms by hws

this would allow the city responders to deal with actual emergencies for taxpayers and not waste their time with hws false alarms

the city would not be putting their staff at risk with hws false alarms

savings on gas, wear and tear on city vehicles

hws could pay for their own fire staff, their fire trucks, their equipment, their building, their pensions, their healthcare, their training, their 911 call center... and the city would save money

all city councel members should move forward with this idea as it will save city taxpayers money

He's had the facts categorically proven to him, time, and time again, that it is NOT 55%.

Misrepresenting the actual facts simply plays to his ridiculously fallacious narrative.

herez an idea

the geneva school district is starting to spend $30 million to replace the sports fields

rather then spend the $30 million just have hws let the local school use their sports fields and stadium

the cost to bus the students over to hws during the year for sports should be only about $20,000 or less per year

if the $30 million is divided over 30 years than that would be about $1 million per year for the cost of the 'newer' fields

the local school district would save around $980,000 per year ($1 million - $20,000 bus costs = $980,000 savings per year to the local school) by not spending the $30 million for the 'newer' fields

hws has more than enough sports fields to share

geneva 2020 is not just about books but also could be about sports improvement by hws shairing their fields

the $20,000 in bus costs per year would actually be less when you factor in that there would be no ongoing costs for the upkeep, utilities, mowing... of the local schools sport field and stadium

the local school could save even more by sharing hws sport field and stadium

and how much taxable property have they taken off the tax rolls when they acquired those homes?

$6 million, $8 million or even higher?

hws could have made a 'donation' close to what taxes would have been to help out the city taxpapers



their property tax bill would have went down because all property owners would be sharing the cost



they were still paying nearly 3 times more compared to canandaigua per year so where were the councilors all those years?

canandaigua offers trash pick-up with their lower taxes so where were the councilors then to help out the geneva taxpayer?

the city has a 'live where you work' program
just use that money to cover that one homeowner



so when the city taxpayers have paid nearly 3 times more in property taxes per year compared to canandaigua for less services were where those few councilors then?

where were the few councilors when the city taxpayers were paying double for the duplicate 911 service for many years?

where were the few city councilors when hws took countless properties off the tax rolls leading to higher taxes for everyone else?

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