Intermunicipal Cooperation in Tompkins County

COUNTY MUNICIPAL GOVERNMENTS FORM COUNCIL TO TACKLE COMMON ISSUES:

Tompkins County's municipal leaders have formally teamed up to discuss their challenging local government issues.

In a new association called The Tompkins County Council of Governments or TCCOG, all of the county's municipalities including the City of Ithaca, the towns of Caroline, Danby, Dryden, Enfield, Groton, Ithaca, Lansing and Ulysses, and the villages of Cayuga Heights, Dryden, Freeville, Groton and Trumansburg, will meet on a monthly basis to discuss and recommend “non-binding” resolutions for “more efficient and fiscally responsible delivery of government services,” according to a county press release.
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Barber said one of the primary focuses for TCCOG will be reducing health insurance costs.

“Some areas, like the city and county, have large pools and can get much better rates,” Barber said. “We're looking at ways to put everybody together in one big pool and reduce costs to the smaller municipalities while not increasing costs to the larger ones.”

With that in mind, the council also has requested about $266,000 in state grant support under the Department of State's Shared Municipal Services Initiative Program, Austic said.

If the grant money is awarded, it will likely go toward trying to hire a consultant who specializes in health insurance, Barber said.