Can you reshape a local economy with $22 million?
It’s really amazing to think 2,000 people were at last week’s rally to save Ogdensburg’s prison. There’s a lot at stake for the community – 287 jobs, an annual payroll of $22 million.
But it’s impossible to sidestep the fact that the prison system is contracting. The state’s inmate population has decreased by a staggering 14,000 people. At a time when the state can’t rub two pennies together, we’re paying for 5,000-6,000 empty prison beds. Don’t we have to start closing prisons somewhere?
Groups like the Correctional Association are holding their own rallies in support of prison closures. Director Robert Gangi says it was a mistake to boost rural economies with prison construction in the first place.
I asked Gangi, then, what he says to places like Ogdensburg that will be hurt. You can hear him struggle with the answer.
Gangi says he supports an Assembly bill that would put finding another use for empty prisons in the hands of the state economic development agency rather than the department of corrections.
Let’s think bigger…
What if Albany said to Ogdensburg: “Look, we have to close prisons. But we get it. You can’t lose 287 jobs. How about this? We don’t use this closure to help balance this year’s budget, or next year’s. We ease you to a more self-sufficient economy.”
The state sets up an economic development/entrepreneur trust fund for Ogdensburg. The fund gets $22 million the first year, $20 million the second, $15 million the third, $10 million the fourth year, etc., until after 6 years Ogdensburg has to go it alone.
Could Ogdensburg create new businesses to re-employ 287 people?
$22 million sounds like a lot of money. How would you spend it? How would you re-envision your community to make it less dependent on government funding?
Do you think Ogdensburg or any other North Country town has the political and civic foresight to use the money responsibly?
Tomorrow on The 8 O’Clock Hour and All Before Five, we’ll talk with prison reform advocates who say prisons are not good for rural economies.
