Here’s a list of North Country institutions threatened with closure, if things don’t change radically in Albany over the next few weeks:<\/p>\n
-State prisons in Lyon Mountain and Moriah. (Other prisons in the region will close dormitories within prisons, meaning fewer jobs.)<\/p>\n
-APA visitor interpretive centers in Newcomb and Paul Smiths.<\/p>\n
-Olympic Regional Development Authority venues in Lake Placid, North Creek and Wilmington.<\/p>\n
-State-run campgrounds and day-use areas in Clinton and Essex Counties.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
Taken together, these institutions don’t just provide hundreds of high paying jobs.<\/p>\n
They also buttress the region’s retail and tourism economies. <\/p>\n
By various estimates, ORDA alone helps pump between $240 and $350 million dollars into North Country coffers.<\/p>\n
A separate study found that Moriah Shock prison brings roughly $8 million in economic activity each year to a depressed area of the Champlain valley.<\/p>\n
Even worse, these cuts are threatened in a year when declining state aid could force schools and local governments to lay off hundreds of additional workers.<\/p>\n
The Tupper Lake school district is considering a move that would eliminate a quarter of its teaching staff.<\/p>\n
In a way, this potential disaster is of our own making: Our region has long relied too heavily on Albany and Washington for our jobs and our investment capital.<\/p>\n
But this sudden pull-the-rug-out-from-under-you shift also calls into question Albany’s philosophy for the region — in particular, for the Adirondack Park. <\/p>\n
Over the last fifteen years, the state spent hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars acquiring vast tracts of land for the forest preserve.<\/p>\n
The promise, made by former Governor George Pataki and others, was clear: resources would follow for stewardship, recreation and tourism development.<\/p>\n
But if the ski centers, campgrounds and VICs close — while the state’s Park Agency and Environmental Conservation staffs are gutted — that promise will appear empty at best and downright dishonest at worst.<\/p>\n
That’s a fact that environmentalists, now proposing massive new land purchases, should confront openly.<\/p>\n
But the current threats also suggest that the North Country’s mostly Republican delegation needs to rethink its strategy in Albany.<\/p>\n
Sen. Betty Little — along with Assembly members Teresa Sayward and Janet Duprey — inherited a method for dealing with downstate Democrats that was first developed when Ron Stafford and George Pataki were around.<\/p>\n
The strategy was simple: Use the GOP’s majority in the Senate, along with close ties to the Governor, to protect North Country interests.<\/p>\n
But those days are gone. We have a Democratic governor and a Democratic majority in the state Senate.<\/p>\n
In an era when more population and more power is shifting to New York City and the suburbs, upstate-vs. downstate finger-pointing looks to be a losing bet.<\/p>\n
By contrast, it appears that state Senator Darrel Aubertine (D-Cape Vincent) saved the Ogdensburg Correctional Facility through deal-making and compromise.<\/p>\n
Like it or not, that kind of partnership-building and horse-trading may be our best hope.<\/p>\n
Fortunately, a model for this kind of coalition exists. <\/p>\n
When Governor Paterson proposed capping property tax payments on forest preserve land, environmentalists, local government leaders and state lawmakers banded together.<\/p>\n
They leveraged all their collective influence — green groups have deep ties to lawmakers and power brokers downstate — to defeat the plan.<\/p>\n
It may be time for a more permanent coalition, one that leverages the Adirondacks’ iconic status and environmental importance in a way that helps protect its economic interests in Albany.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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