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Onondaga County Legislature postpones vote on additional aquarium funding

Site of the aquarium taken from Solar St. Sept. 16, 2024.
Scott Willis
/
WAER News
Site work is underway for the aquarium at the Inner Harbor, taken from Solar St. Sept. 16, 2024.

Less than 24 hours after it first appeared on the agenda, the chairman of the Onondaga County Legislature Tuesday removed a last-minute $11 million spending request for building an aquarium in the Inner Harbor. It would effectively allow the county to loan itself money in anticipation of donations, contributions, and sponsorships needed to complete the controversial project. Chairman Tim Burtis says even though the county executive has secured some money, they were not ready to bring it to a vote.

“There was discussion about, well, let's do it. He has a million here and a million there," Burtis said. "There just ended up being too much discussion and too much disagreement in our caucus. And we thought we were further along than we were, and we weren't”

The spending item skipped the legislature’s routine two-committee vetting process where that discussion usually happens. The lack of transparency generated angry remarks from several residents at the meeting who said the now $100 million project is a waste of money. Chairman Burtis acknowledged the legislature could have done better.

“Well, we're not perfect down here, right? So obviously we did not do the best work on this one," Burtis said. "We've been busy. We have been working. At the same time, we had some desire to try to get it done this year because next year we're going to have our own different issues."

He didn’t elaborate on what those issues might be. Burtis says the spending item will go through the proper committees before coming up for a vote in February at the earliest.

Scott Willis covers politics, local government, transportation, and arts and culture for WAER. He came to Syracuse from Detroit in 2001, where he began his career in radio as an intern and freelance reporter. Scott is honored and privileged to bring the day’s news and in-depth feature reporting to WAER’s dedicated and generous listeners. You can find him on twitter @swillisWAER and email him at srwillis@syr.edu.