It is often suggested that in politics there are no new ideas - just new people suggesting old ones repackaged.

Recently, the issue of moving the operations of county government out to County House Road, near the sheriff's department, from downtown, has again been raised. While some of the arguments for moving the county's seat have been updated, they fail both the practicality and reality tests. The new arguments now fall into three specific areas - energy savings, the benefits of consolidation and the high cost of repairing existing structures.

On the energy front, proponents suggest the new digester (one of three digesters now in some form of creation within Cayuga County) can save the county money. That might be true, if the county's digester at the Solid and Water Conservation District Office were further along. The overall project, that has had some site work done, is significantly short (in the high six figures) from getting its full funding package together according to several sources. Topping that off is that some of the current funds pledged to build it expire in the near future, if the project isn't finished. So while it would be nice to suggest such savings, “going green” is far from a done deal.

A second claim is such a project would create “economies of scale” and allow for consolidation. While both are needed, taxpayers need to see specifics. While there is a great deal of talk about consolidation in Cayuga County, little to nothing has been accomplished.

For example, city voters overwhelmingly rejected a consolidation of civil service commissions in November. While there is talk about consolidating the multitude of town assessors, again, long overdue, this, like civil service moves to the county, not reducing any staffing.

In the case of assessments it would likely expand county operations not reduce them. If county leaders really want to make this argument, it would be nice if they could show some real savings first.

Finally there are the high costs of repairing what they already own. One of the county's greatest challenges is its failure, despite the best efforts of County Manager Wayne Allen, to address its capital needs. He has had floating, for almost a year, a plan to address the county's long term capital needs, including fixing structures that have not been addressed in decades, without action. One can only wonder if, even if the county moves, if they plan on abandoning the facilities and leaving them in disrepair and vacant.

So forget how such a plan would make it harder for county residents, who use public transportation to get to a facility outside the city (remember it will cost gas to get from County House Road to Auburn for most other operations), its cost or what it would do to downtown. These other issues make it just an updated re-tread of an old idea.

Cosentino is a former mayor of Auburn and can be contacted at cozguytho@aol.com