Airports, nursing homes, police departments: what can we afford?

Just before Christmas, Chris Knight ran a fascinating piece in the Adirondack Enterprise looking at the future of the Lake Clear airport.

The Harrietstown-run facility operates with massive federal subsidies. But a sharp decline in fuel sales at the airport forced local leaders to slash funding for other programs and services.

Town supervisor Larry Miller has argued that locals should continue expanding and upgrading the facility.

“It is a viable service to the community and has a $15 million economic impact on the Tri-Lakes,” he told the Enterprise.

But with New York state slashing aid to local governments and property tax revenues likely to contract in coming years, programs like this will face closer and closer scrutiny.

Essex County is already debating closure of the nursing home in Elizabethtown; the village of Port Henry is considering dissolution, and North Country communities continue to debate the costs and benefits of everything from local police departments to ski hills.

This afternoon I interviewed Chris Hoene, an expert on local government finances with the National League of Cities.

He’s convinced that local communities are still at the beginning of this budget crisis. Things will get much worse before they get better.

“It’s not going to be one of those situations where there can just be tweaks around the margins,” Hoene said. “There are going to be wholesale services that just aren’t there anymore.”

The problem is that revenues — sales and property taxes, and state aid — are all stagnant or shrinking, just as health care and pension costs are soaring.

“So it’s not one of those cases where local officials can just say, ‘If we get through next year, we’ll probably be okay.'” Hoene added.

Harrietstown officials are convinced that their community would face significant Federal penalties if they tried to close or downsize the airport.

Similar concerns have been raised about proposed cuts to local education and social programs.

But as local leaders and residents look to redefine the role of town and county governments, we may have to begin demanding something new from Albany and Washington DC.

(See this related story from St. Lawrence County’s legislature on the Dec. 30 news page.)

Not more cash in the form of taxpayer subsidies. Our state and Federal governments are broke, which means those taxpayer subsidies are no longer reliable.

What we need now is the flexibility to make our own painful choices.

What do we consider to be essential services? How much are we willing to pay for them?

I’m guessing we’ll have to answer some of these questions in the months ahead.