Tonight the County Legislature will hold its annual vote on a five-year plan
for county infrastructure projects. The 2013-2018 Capital Improvement Program includes Monroe
Community College’s proposal to move its downtown campus.
College officials want to move the Damon City Campus from the Sibley
Building on East Main Street to several buildings in the Kodak complex on State
Street. Doing so, however, will require $75 million, and roughly half of that
money will need to come from the county. College officials and trustees, who
already have the support of County Executive Maggie Brooks and the student
governments at both MCC campuses, will need the backing of legislators.
Legislature Democrats are standing behind Mayor Tom Richards, who wants MCC
to stay at the Sibley building. But they haven’t ruled out the Kodak property.
“I don’t think anybody in the caucus has made a hard and fast decision,”
Democratic Leader Ted O’Brien told me earlier this month.
O’Brien says that the Legislature, as a body, hasn’t had a chance to go
through the pros and cons of the two sites. Democrats want the proposals to be
debated, with public input, on the Legislature floor, he says.
He and other Democrats say they have questions about details, including the
amount of space MCC actually needs and whether the cost could be reduced for
either site. But the Kodak site has been a possibility for two years. Shouldn’t
the Democrats have reached out to MCC officials and asked these questions long
before now? O’Brien says he’s “made inquiries” and that the legislators are
“trying to find out the answers.”
“So far, all we have is the CIP and ultimately maybe a bonding vote, but
nothing’s come before us where we really get to examine the merits of the issue
as we would any other referral,” O’Brien says. “So no referral has come before
us. We’re doing what we can to be as informed as we can, but no referral has
come before us, so we haven’t had legislative debate.”
Some Republicans have also had reservations about the move. Earlier this
year, when the MCC board of trustees selected the Kodak site, a couple of
legislators said that they weren’t sure of the need for a downtown campus at
all.
Ultimately, Tuesday’s vote isn’t the one that really matters, but it’ll
provide some insight into legislators’ thoughts on the project. Some Dems have
said they may not vote for the plan if the language isn’t right; they want
references to the downtown campus to be site-neutral. Some sort of investment
will be necessary at either location, especially since MCC officials want the
college to own its downtown campus.
The Capital Improvement Program, which contains myriad projects, from
roadwork to replacing library computers, requires a simple majority to pass.
The big vote happens in December. That’s when the Legislature traditionally
votes to authorize bonding for the next year’s projects, as listed in the CIP.
Any sort of bonding requires a “yes” vote from two-thirds of the legislators;
that’s 20 votes. There are 18 Republicans in the Legislature and 11 Democrats,
which means that at least two Democrats will have to vote in favor of bonding.
But a lot can happen between now and December.
This article appears in Jul 4-10, 2012.
