State entity that manages North Country lakes and rivers in crisis

And no, we’re not talking about the Adirondack Park Agency or the Department of Environmental Conservation.

Will Doolittle has a great piece in the Glens Falls Post Star this week about the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District.

This is the massive regional public corporation that manages huge swaths of the North Country, from Great Sacandaga Lake to the Black River.

It turns out a court decision in 2008 stripped the HRBRRD of most of its funding, creating a deficit of roughly $4.4 million.

Now the Hudson River-Black River Regulating District is working on a plan to fund its operations by assessing five counties – Warren, Washington, Saratoga, Albany and Rensselaer – for flood control benefits.

As you can imagine, county leaders are ecstatic about picking up the cost for the Regulating District’s operations

But as Doolittle reports, there are other ripple effects as well. HRBRRD is supposed to pay property taxes for shorefront land around Great Sacandaga Lake.

Without a revenue stream, however, the state doesn’t have any money.

Its inability to pay those taxes this year to local school districts like Broadalbin-Perth is hurting those already-poor districts in an especially difficult budget year.

“They’re telling us that they’re making efforts to get the money,” said Stephen Tomlinson, superintendent of Broadalbin-Perth. “It’s money we’ve been counting on.”

The regulating district owes Broadalbin-Perth $256,000 for the current year, and owes $1.4 million to various school districts in the area.

No one disputes that the Regulating District has done its basic job — preventing flooding on the Hudson and Black Rivers — really well.

The question now is who will pay for that service to continue?