What’s on the legislative agenda?

Lawmakers discuss 2024 priorities for the Adirondacks

By Gwendolyn Craig

State legislators will return to Albany on Jan. 3 with a slate of Adirondack Park-related initiatives jockeying for attention and funds while facing an approximately $4.3 billion deficit for the fiscal year 2025.

Lawmakers may also need to address bills Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul vetoed, either by working them into the state budget negotiations or revising legislation. 

Adirondack Park lawmakers say they hope to make progress on broadband and cell service, affordable housing, road salt reductions and first passage of constitutional amendments dealing with closed prisons and an historical lodge. 

They’ll have 61 session days to do it, with a state budget due April 1 and the last scheduled day of session on June 6. 

Funding

In a letter to Hochul, more than three dozen organizations representing the Adirondack and Catskill Parks requested $10 million in the Environmental Protection Fund for forest preserve stewardship projects. It is signed by a diverse mix of local governments, environmental organizations, recreational groups and land conservancies. The groups requested that amount in budget negotiations last year. Lawmakers granted $8 million. 

State Assemblyman Matthew Simspson, R-Horicon, said he fully supports the $10 million budget request. 

State Assemblyman Billy Jones, D-Chateaugay Lake, said funding is always needed to take care of the state’s properties, but did not say what level he would support.

Simpson, Jones and many park organizations are also eager to see the state fund and accomplish projects recommended to reduce road salt spreading in the Adirondack Park. A long-awaited report released in September estimated 193,000 tons of road salt is spread on Adirondack Park roads each year. It included recommendations for the state Department of Transportation and local governments to manage salt use and keep roads safe.

The groups also requested continued funding for visitor centers, water-quality research projects, park communities and continued assistance with cellular and broadband connectivity and affordable housing.

Simpson also wants to see state agencies work on eligibility requirements for broadband and other infrastructure grant programs. Oftentimes, he said, the regulations “don’t work for a lot of our communities,” because they do not meet the demographics, or because second homeowners skew formulas in municipalities where year-round residents are less affluent. Simpson hopes the Environmental Facilities Corporation, for example, will consider changing its formulas for granting water and wastewater infrastructure funds.

The assemblyman also hopes the state will consider supporting more land banks and infrastructure improvements to create more affordable housing opportunities in the Adirondacks. 

“We have a lot of places where there are many opportunities for affordable housing, but the cost of the infrastructure in these Adirondack towns are so exorbitant,” Simpson said. 

Early signals suggest that the state may need to tighten its purse strings, however. The Olympic Regional Development Authority said the state Division of Budget asked it to reduce its 2024 capital project budget by $20 million, to $80 million. The Division of Budget told the Explorer it would not be commenting on specific figures during the budget making process, but did say the state is currently facing a $4.3 billion deficit. 

Other park priorities 

A bill intended to strengthen environmental protections in the Adirondack Park Agency’s review and approval of subdivisions has failed to pass the state Legislature since it was introduced in 2015. The APA oversees development in the 6-million-acre mix of public and private lands.

The legislation would require large-scale subdivisions to use principles of conservation design, which incorporate things like clustering homes to limit a development’s footprint and prioritizing open space. The bill has the backing of environmentalists in the park, but most Adirondack legislators are not in support. 

It’s unclear if the bill will advance in the 2024 session under the leadership of downstate lawmakers state Sen. Peter Harckham and Assemblymember Deborah Glick, chairs of their respective houses’ environmental committees.

Jones also introduced legislation last year to create an ATV trail fund and statewide ATV trail system. The Adirondack Park Local Government Review Board is in support and hopes to see action on it this year. The bill would require ATV registration fees and fines go to a fund specifically for supporting a trail network, ATV regulations enforcement, education and remediation. 

Jerry Delaney, executive director of the review board, said the organization is also looking at solutions to repurposing state land purchased for state administrative use. 

Vetoed legislation 

Hochul has vetoed dozens of bills passed in 2023, including legislation that would bring retirement benefits of environmental conservation officers, forest rangers and park police on par with other state law enforcement employees. 

The Police Benevolent Association of New York State, which represents more than 1,100 law enforcement personnel, have tried three years in a row to get the measure accomplished. It would allow environmental conservation officers and others to retire with full pensions after 20 years of service instead of 25, among other benefits.

Hochul has consistently vetoed the legislation, citing budgetary concerns. Jim McCartney, president of the union, said if Hochul doesn’t include the retirement benefit in her executive budget, “it yet again will be received by our members as you saying they don’t deserve the same retirement benefit as every other state law enforcement officer.”

The governor vetoed several environmental bills recently, also citing cost concerns for some. A bill sponsored by Harckham and Glick to provide additional water-quality protections for waterways used for boating and fishing was vetoed for the “significant practical and fiscal implications,” Hochul wrote. 

Another Harckham bill that Hochul vetoed would have prohibited the application of pesticides to certain local freshwater wetlands. Hochul said such legislation would create confusion and inconsistencies with the DEC’s pesticide program.

A spokesman for Harckham said some of the vetoed bills could be revisited in state budget negotiations. 

Adirondack Park Agency

Adirondack Park lawmakers are also waiting for Hochul to make APA board appointments. One in-park seat on the board has gone vacant since former Johnsburg Supervisor Andrea Hogan resigned in January 2023. Three board members are currently serving on expired terms including Ken Lynch, an out-of-park board member and former DEC regional director, whose term expired in June 2022. In-park board member Mark Hall’s term expired in June 2022. The term of Dan Wilt, another in-park board member, expired last summer.

Hochul must make appointments to the board and the Senate must confirm them. State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Sen. Mark Walczyk, R-Watertown, did not respond to requests for input on the 2024 session.

Simpson said he believes the governor will make appointments this session considering it is an election year. “They are long overdue,” Simpson said.

Department of Environmental Conservation

In their letter to Hochul, environmental advocates, local governments and land trusts also called for added personnel to the state Department of Environmental Conservation’s Division of Lands and Forests. This division has 170 staff responsible for 4.95 million acres of public land and conservation easements, according to their letter.

The more than three dozen groups also called for another forest ranger academy next year “to stay ahead of attrition due to promotions and retirements.” 

The groups also called for reform at the state agency level in 2024. They want to see the DEC create an accessibility policy for state lands. “Accessible and sustainable trail infrastructure provides opportunities for all visitors whether they be families, new recreators, or individuals with mobility challenges,” the letter to Hochul read. 

They also want to see the DEC follow through with its agreements with land trusts and conservancies for land they have purchased for the state to eventually buy. These organizations are currently holding over 96,000 acres, according to the letter, most of which are intended for the state’s two forest preserves. 

Top photo: State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury and state Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, R-Horicon, at the 2023 State of the State address in the Assembly chamber. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig