Has the North Country’s small government future arrived?

Every day, North Country Public Radio reports on the downsizing of another long-established institution, contracting or collapsing because there just aren’t enough taxpayer dollars to go around.

A nursing home in Alexandria Bay, prisons in Lyon Mountain, Moriah and Ogdensburg, warnings of school teacher lay-offs in Tupper Lake, a vote in Port Henry (scheduled for next month) on whether to dissolve the village government.

The list goes on: Visitor Interpretive Centers in Newcomb and Paul Smiths on the chopping block. Nine state parks across the North Country also slated to shut down.

Washington County has even announced that its Sheriff’s Department will end overnight road patrols as part of cost savings.

Looming behind all this shrink-shock is Albany’s $8.2 billion dollar budget.

As the Federal stimulus fades away, the shortage of state dollars becomes more and more glaringly apparent.

In the weeks ahead — not months, not years — many of our communities will have four big questions to answer:

1. Which government services are truly “essential”?

2. If Albany stops paying for them, are we willing to boost our own local taxes to pick up the tab?

3. How do we help the dozens (hundreds? thousands?) of North Country government workers whose jobs are on the line?

4. Can our private sector adapt, finding new customers and new sources of revenue that don’t rely on taxpayers?

A year ago, these questions were academic. They were part of an ideological debate — big government vs. small government; higher taxes vs. lower taxes.

But now it seems all but certain that deep cuts will be made.

Mike Dechene, president of Tupper Lake’s school board, summed it up in an interview with the Adirondack Daily Enterprise.

“I think it’s devastating…I think it’s something that’s not only going to devastate our education in our district, but it’s going to devastate our community. … It’s one of the worst things that I’ve ever encountered on the school board.”