Onondaga County lawmakers could be stepping away from spending any more taxpayer dollars on a controversial aquarium project.
Onondaga County Legislature chairman Tim Burtis said legislators will consider amending a local law that would allow County Executive Ryan McMahon to use donations to fund overruns on the project. If approved, it means the $85 million lawmakers allocated for the project is all it will get, according to Burtis.
"The Onondaga County Legislature is not willing to put any more taxpayer funds towards the aquarium," Burtis said.
The project has come under fire from the start, getting through the Legislature by a one-vote margin two and a half years ago. When costs climbed to nearly $100 million, McMahon asked lawmakers to cover the difference initially and be reimbursed later by private funds. Lawmakers balked at the idea and pulled a resolution off the agenda late last year. Burtis said this latest move would amend a 1996 local law that would allow McMahon to accept private donations for the project.
"Ryan has said that he can raise the money," Burtis said. "And this local law, amending a local law from 1996, when the law was done for the Friends of the Zoo, we're amending that law so that he can accept those gifts and appropriate them for the aquarium.”
Burtis expects it will make it through the legislature.
"This is being sent to Ways and Means and my feeling is that we have support on the Republican side and some support on the Democrat side, but we'll see and this is headed to the March session," Burtis said.
