About Gwendolyn Craig

Gwen is an award-winning journalist covering environmental policy for the Explorer since January 2020. She also takes photos and videos for the Explorer's magazine and website. She is a current member of the Legislative Correspondents Association of New York. Gwen has worked at various news outlets since 2015. Prior to moving to upstate New York, she worked for a D.C. Metro-area public relations firm, producing digital content for clients including the World Health Organization, the Low Income Investment Fund and Rights and Resources Initiative. She has a master's degree in journalism from the S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications at Syracuse University. She has bachelor's degrees in English and journalism, with a concentration in ecology and evolutionary biology, from the University of Connecticut. Gwen is also a part-time figure skating coach. Contact her at (518) 524-2902 or gwen@adirondackexplorer.org. Sign up for Gwen’s newsletter here.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. mom23ADK says

    A couple of thoughts:

    Of course, everyone wants clean water, air and soil. However, how much power do people want to give the government to obtain these things?

    I feel like there should be more to this article. For example,

    “The Explorer spent over six months reviewing records and interviewing members of the Pataki administration, environmental leaders and state agencies to see how the majority of the last environmental bond act was spent. It found no audit was ever done. A full accounting was never made available. The state Department of Environmental Conservation, in charge of the bulk of the funding, had issued a handful of annual reports accounting expenditures and allocations. The last public report to state legislators was just over two decades ago in March 2001 when $1.3 billion had been appropriated, but $647 million had actually been spent.”

    That’s it? No quotes from those interviewed about accountability for no audits, no full accounting? Basil too busy going to Ukraine to actually discuss why last report was 2001? Where can we see those reports?

    Also:

    “conservation easement” – what exactly is covered under conservation easement.

    Politicians always promise thousands of jobs, but details. What is the average pay going to be for these jobs? Will they be unionized jobs? What about private contractors-will they be able to get bids for these jobs, or are they going to have to provide Union workers in order to get the bid? Will bids be given to minority businesses first? Etc…

    I feel most people will vote yes, without really knowing the specifics of the Act, not know that NY hasn’t spent all of the money from the last Bond passing, and journalists should help with the details.

    I think your article is a good first step, and I will dig more. From what I have already found, I will be voting NO on Prop 1. If you can provide any help with that, it would be appreciated.

    • Gwendolyn Craig says

      After the paragraph you quoted in your comment, there are links to our in-depth pieces, which should answer some of your questions. I hope that helps.

  2. Tom Paine says

    Vote NO!! The people of NYS are already swimming in debt and now 4.2 billion more. A bottomless pit of NYS debt for generations to come. And know we discover that there has been no audit trail of 1996 Environmental Bond Act monies. In true NYS form the graft, corruption, and mismanagement shines through. Vote NO!!

  3. Patricia A Darienzo says

    It is true that so many programs that are funded by taxpayers under the guise of protecting the environment, (as an example) wind up in the pockets of the politicians. the last proposal to fix the roads also included another stimulus check, whatever happened to that. Some roads were paved, many others were not. And don’t even get started on Social Security, taken from our paychecks and now they are threatening it will not be there for us. WE THE PEOPLE ARE JUSTIFIABLY PISSED

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