{"id":1840,"date":"2010-04-12T11:27:00","date_gmt":"2010-04-12T15:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/12\/the-adirondack-councils-take-the-park-is-boosting-prosperity\/"},"modified":"2010-04-12T11:27:00","modified_gmt":"2010-04-12T15:27:00","slug":"the-adirondack-councils-take-the-park-is-boosting-prosperity","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/2010\/04\/12\/the-adirondack-councils-take-the-park-is-boosting-prosperity\/","title":{"rendered":"The Adirondack Council’s take: The Park is boosting prosperity"},"content":{"rendered":"

John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, published a provocative essay<\/a> in the Albany Times-Union on Sunday.<\/p>\n

He argues that the Adirondack Park is an economic success story, and a model for rural development.<\/p>\n

Local officials in the Adirondack Park should stop blaming the Adirondack Park Agency and state land acquisition for wrecking the Adirondack economy. The economy isn’t wrecked. It is one of the most robust rural areas in the Northeastern United States. Being a park is helping, not harming, the Adirondacks.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Sheehan makes some interesting and valid points about topics we’ve debated intensely here at the In Box.<\/p>\n

But he glosses one very problematic issue: <\/p>\n

Much of the Park’s “prosperity” is the result not of a robust private sector, but a booming taxpayer-funded government bureaucracy.<\/p>\n

Sheehan acknowledges this fact, but seems unconcerned about it: <\/p>\n

[M]ost Adirondackers (33 percent) work for local and state government. That includes towns, villages, counties, school districts and state agencies. <\/p>\n

While such jobs don’t lead to riches, they do have their perks.<\/p>\n

The jobs rarely go away. Towns and counties don’t stop providing services, regardless of economic conditions. <\/p>\n

Public employment offers generous benefits and retirement plans. A large percentage of Adirondack local governments pay generous health benefits for their employees, with 36 percent requiring no employee contribution at all. <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The problem, of course, is that many of those jobs are indeed going away.<\/p>\n

The local property tax base is stretched to the limit.<\/p>\n

And Albany appears increasingly reluctant to fund Adirondack schools, prisons, local governments, social service agencies, etc.<\/p>\n

Tupper Lake’s school district is faced with the loss of one-fourth of its teaching staff next year.<\/p>\n

Moriah Shock and Lyon Mountain Correctional facility are targeted for closure.<\/p>\n

Local residents have very little control or say over their economic futures.<\/p>\n

When environmentalists tout the Adirondack Park as a model for rural development world-wide, it’s hard to imagine that this is what they mean.<\/p>\n

For the Park to be a true success story, all that public land needs to drive a healthy, prosperous, and environmentally sustainable private sector.<\/p>\n

So far, it’s hard to argue that this has happened.<\/p>\n

Your thoughts welcome below.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

John Sheehan, spokesman for the Adirondack Council, published a provocative essay in the Albany Times-Union […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":12,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/12"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1840"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1840\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1840"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1840"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.northcountrypublicradio.org\/inbox\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1840"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}