Julie Abbott is running to serve a fourth term in the Onondaga County Legislature. Credit: Courtesy of Julie Abbott

Editor’s note: If you’d like to read about Julie Abbott’s opponent, you can read about more about Gregory Eriksen here. Central Current’s election coverage is supported in part by a grant from the Health Foundation for Western and Central New York.

Julie Abbott calls herself an avid volunteer. She’s worked with the Redhouse Arts Center, Vera House, and the Skaneateles School Board. She says her volunteer work inspired her involvement in politics. 

Abbott is vying for her fourth term on the Onondaga County Legislature and is facing Democratic challenger Gregory Eriksen in the 6th district race. 

In her conversation with Central Current, she spoke about the impact of this September’s ICE raid in Cato. 

“I’m personally devastated with how that Cato raid has impacted my district and my communities, and specifically some of our families here,” she said.  

Abbott is the chair of the legislature’s Environmental Protection Committee and also serves on the Ways and Means Committee. 

“I just feel like Albany isn’t listening, but here in Onondaga County, we are, and so I’m very proud of what we do,” she said. 

This interview has been edited for length and clarity. 

Central Current: How will you make up for the potential lack of funding for the aquarium? 

Julie Abbott: We at the legislature, [County Executive Ryan McMahon] came back to us and asked for more funding and we held the hard line and said no. You put in for a budgeted amount, and that was all that it was. 

So how it is going to be made up–which is not me, that is the executive branch. There is an Aquarium Foundation Board and I know for a fact they–I sit on that board as a legislative representative, because no money is coming from the legislature and from county taxpayers. It’s coming, right, from the executive branch. It’s not us, the legislature. So I want to separate that. 

Ryan has created the Aquarium Foundation Board of Directors. They’re hiring a fundraiser, and somebody–a professional person–is going to come in, and it’s going to be similar to what you see with Friends of the Zoo, but on a huge, large scale. 

I do believe the County Executive, it’s been widely publicized, is in talks for naming rights on multiple pieces. I can tell you, despite the negative press that always gets the headline, that’s not, as a legislator, what I hear in my district from people. In fact, I even have a couple who I just connected with the County Executive’s team, because it isn’t my prerogative. That’s them, okay? Not me. Ryan. [The couple] are going to give a legacy donation. 

So it’s up to the County Executive to decide how he’s going to continue to fund it. But I can tell you, there’s zero appetite at the legislature to spend any more money on it, and specifically any tax dollars. 

And that was not tax dollars, by the way. That was the one time. 

And when everybody talks about it, the hard thing to understand is that everybody’s out there like, we only care about this or that. It’s not true. 

The reality of when you work to support something, you have to have a sustainable revenue stream. If you said, oh, we want to put that money towards this, where are you going to pay for it next year and the year after? It’s not sustainable. 

A lot of these ideas that are out there with this, we’re taxing tourists. It’s sales dollars vs. property tax and the people who live here. If you choose to come, we’re going to make money off of it, and that’s much different than raising taxes on our residents. 

In fact, we are poised to be voting on the lowest tax rate in fifty years with this budget cycle. So we are good stewards of tax dollars without a doubt. 

CC: How will you handle the loss of funding to services like SNAP and Medicaid? 

Abbott: I think New York State should stop hijacking our money and just send it to us. And I really feel that we have a problem with Albany. 

For example, they continue to expand and tell us you are required to service all these people with no additional funding. So in essence, they’re telling us they make the rules, and yet we are supposed to somehow figure out how to, you know, fund that. 

It all remains to be seen. And I can tell you, New York State has a huge part to play with this. For real. Because they are the ones who keep coming in and they keep doing–they’re called unfunded mandates. And they come in and they mandate that we must do XYZ. 

They just did it with daycare. They just did it with their daycare program. Here we are, an example for the State in Onondaga County, trying to help give a hand up out of poverty for people who need that in order to work, people who want to work. And the State comes in and changes all the rules and we’re gonna have to, you know, stop our program. 

We ended up figuring it out, but you know, they do this all the time. The State has a large role to play in this, and where it comes from at the federal level, there is no way that any one county alone is going to be able to shoulder the unfunded mandates with regards to this that come out of Albany. There’s a responsibility on many levels. 

CC: The next question is about the two resolutions to transfer land to the Onondaga Nation. 

Abbott: I don’t know what that resolution is. 

CC: There were two resolutions in, I think, 2011 and 2016 to transfer land to the Onondaga Nation. Do you believe you have a role in facilitating that transfer? And if so, what is that role? 

Abbott: I was not on the Legislature in either of those years. 

So in fairness, I’ve heard a little bit about it, but I’m not really super familiar, and we should absolutely have conversations. And I really would like to hear more about details, for example. 

The way it works is we legislate, but it would have to come from the executive branch, and then we can, you know, talk about it. We absolutely–if there are promises that need to be had about a past promise or discussion, I think we absolutely, as leadership, should always have these discussions. And I’d like to hear more about it. 

I don’t know the specifics, so I can’t really comment specifically. 

CC: In a hypothetical scenario where funding for Onondaga County is conditioned on the basis of the County Sheriff’s office cooperating with ICE’s operations, would you be in favor of supporting that collaboration? Why or why not? 

Abbott: So I think it’s very complex. 

I think it is absolutely horrible what is happening in my district to our human beings, who in the case of the Cato raid, were on their way to citizenship, and I know in the case of at least one, had her certificates to work. 

So we have a problem with the path to citizenship that predates this administration, and it’s been a challenge forever. 

I really think that we need these workers here. They are humans and amazing parts of our community that bring diversity where I live in wonderful ways: for our schools, for our village centers, and I’m telling you, they’re doing jobs that Americans seemingly don’t want to do. They’re on our farms, helping us get fresh food to our table. They’re doing factory jobs where we cannot get a workforce. 

So I guess until something’s sitting on my plate, I need to see what funding they would cut, because you can’t bankrupt the county. But I’ll tell you right now, it would be very difficult for me to support something like that, although it’s also difficult in the seat I sit in to say you’re going to bankrupt–you’re not gonna have sewer, water, infrastructure. 

I hope in humanity that one of our congressional leaders or US Senators would stop in and lobby like heck to make sure you were never faced with that kind of ultimatum, because it would be disastrous either way. Yes or no, it’s disastrous in my mind. 


CC: As Micron ramps up, how do you plan to monitor and ensure that it lives up to its promises to protect Central New York’s bountiful natural life? 

Abbott: I’ll tell you right now, that’s not the legislative prerogative. I’m just going to be honest with you, there’s an environmental impact statement. This is nothing to do — I’m not kidding you, we don’t have a say in this. Like, I’m serious. 

So what we can do? So then, while the legislature doesn’t have oversight or authority ensuring that, I chair the Environmental Protection committee, and what we do in my seat is we read all the documentation we can. We make sure we are very familiar with the environmental impact statement. You show up at meetings and then you can question. And questioning meaning as a representative and an advocate. 

But at the end of the day, it does not fall within the prerogative of the legislature. 

CC: If ICE approaches Onondaga County and requests sensitive data to aid in what it says is a criminal investigation and refuses to provide more details, should Onondaga County furnish data from a department like DSS to federal authorities with unclear motives? 

Abbott: Okay. So there’s a legal requirement for that, or no? I’m not familiar with the process so I don’t want to say — if we can’t actually do it. I guess I need more information. Like, so, if we’re legally required per some law that I don’t know about, do you know what I mean? Or does it go to the county? Or does it go through legal? Or I mean, is it just an opinion of mine? Do you want my opinion? 

Okay, so if there’s a legal requirement and we cannot, I’m sorry, whether you like the law or not, we are policy makers, and we have to abide by whatever there is. If there’s no legal requirement, I guess I would need more info. …If there were no legal requirement that implored the county through some federal statute to turn over that information, I would hope that the county officials who are privy to such sensitive information would respect that as any private institutions, such as a banking institution or your doctor with HIPAA. 

Short of a court order or something legal from a court of law that implored the county to turn over sensitive information, I would really expect that we would treat this as we treat any other sensitive information, or a doctor would treat your medical records with HIPAA or a banking institution with your finances. That’s what I would say. 

Read more of Central Current’s coverage

Laura Robertson is a staff reporter covering Onondaga County. Prior to joining Central Current, she lived on the edge of the Bering Strait in Nome, Alaska, where she worked as a reporter for a year. She...