Park agency, ORDA, climate projects and infrastructure funds lead Adirondack-specific investments
By Gwendolyn Craig
Gov. Kathy Hochul unveiled a $252 billion spending plan on Tuesday, which includes funding for new Adirondack Park Agency staff and its headquarters, $400 million for the Environmental Protection Fund, where Adirondack Park-related projects are often subsidized, and $500 million for clean water infrastructure funding. Hochul also proposed $1 billion for climate change projects, calling it “the largest investment in protecting our environment ever in the state’s history,” and a kind of placeholder fund for the delayed cap-and-invest program she promoted in 2023.
Some lawmakers and environmental groups want even more funding for the environment, especially in light of a new presidential administration, which has already pulled the United States a second time from the international climate change treaty called the Paris Agreement.
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Hochul’s executive budget for the 2025-2026 fiscal year is about $8.6 billion more than last year’s budget with no proposed income tax increases and several tax cut proposals.
The Hochul administration pointed to an 8% increase in revenue bolstering the new spending, though acknowledged uncertainty in many federal-based programs under President Donald Trump.
The Democratic governor pinned the responsibility of federal funds for programs like Medicaid, childcare and education on the Republican congressional delegation, noting “if they fail, they must be held accountable.”
“New York and other states simply are not able to shoulder these costs on our own,” Hochul said. “I’ll do everything in my power to protect your interests. Our budget priorities reflect what New Yorkers expect–common sense solutions that make real peoples’ lives just a little bit better.”
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State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli appeared to disagree with the governor, and warned that the state “needs to be prepared to assess any actions taken by the new administration in Washington and how they could affect New York’s finances.”
Republican state lawmakers criticized the governor for “overspending.”
State Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, R-Lake George, called it “business as usual for Albany, another record-setting budget that fails to acknowledge its fundamental spending problem and the state’s correlating affordability crisis.”
After pitching affordability as one of her focuses in her State of the State agenda last week, Assembly Minority Leader Will Barclay said his optimism of the governor’s vision was short lived.
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State Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, said Hochul’s proposed middle-class tax cut, child tax credit and inflation rebate proposals “do not come close to meeting the immediate needs of our residents and do little to address the immediate and ongoing affordability crisis we face.”
Hochul and state lawmakers have the next couple of months to flesh out a final spending plan, due April 1. Historically the state budget has been late, with last year’s missing deadline by 20 days.
The Explorer is reviewing budget bills and will continue to report on them. Here are some of the executive’s highlights so far.
Adirondack Park Agency
The governor is proposing a $1.6 million increase in the agency’s budget from last year to a total of $8.2 million.
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The Hochul administration is proposing to bolster the APA’s staff with five new full-time positions, according to the budget proposal, bringing it to 59 employees. The agency, which is charged with long-range planning of the 6-million acre mix of public and private lands, has long had 54 full-time employees.
It also appears the agency could receive even more capital funding for its headquarters.
Hochul is proposing an additional $10 million “to support the construction of a new APA Headquarters.” The state appropriated $29 million for the agency’s headquarters in the 2022 budget.
APA Executive Director Barbara Rice acknowledged a lack of information about the agency’s headquarters during a meeting earlier this month but suggested more information could be coming soon.
Rice has headed a proposal to move the APA from a state complex in Ray Brook to a Main Street building in downtown Saranac Lake. The agency has also proposed constructing a new building behind the former Paul Smith’s Light and Power building and a new parking lot. Because the APA cannot own property, the buildings would be owned by the village of Saranac Lake.
The village recently was awarded a state Office of Parks, Recreation and Historic Preservation reimbursement grant to upgrade its hydroelectric facilities at that location.
Clean Water funding
The Hochul administration has proposed $500 million for clean water infrastructure funding, the usual amount the state designates annually.
Last year Hochul’s executive budget proposed halving the fund. Lawmakers, local government officials and environmental advocates all opposed the cut, and the funding was reinstated in the final budget.
This year, however, lawmakers are gearing up to ask for more.
State Sen. Peter Harckham and state Assemblymember Steve Otis, downstate Democrats, have already advocated for a $600 million clean water infrastructure fund. Environmental groups have backed that request.
Climate and environmental funding
The governor walked back her cap-and-invest program in last week’s State of the State address, a disappointment to many Democratic colleagues and environmental groups.
The cap-and-invest program involves setting a cap on the amount of greenhouse gas the state can emit, with that target declining annually. Companies can pay the state for its emissions, which would go into a fund for climate projects.
The program, which Hochul pitched in 2023, was supposed to have a regulatory framework by the end of 2024. The governor has since delayed that.
In a press briefing on Tuesday, Hochul pointed to a $1 billion pot of money she’s proposed for renewable energy and climate change mitigation projects she said would have been funded by the cap-and-invest program.
She also championed her signing of the Climate Superfund Act, another fund collecting money from polluters.
“Nothing can be read or interpreted as me pulling back from our commitments, because you’re hearing here today in this budget, $1 billion that was not there,” Hochul said.
A coalition of environmental organizations including The Nature Conservancy, Environmental Advocates NY, the New York League of Conservation Voters and others, released a joint statement that said the budget proposal “falls short.” They cited the delay to a cap-and-invest program.
“By failing to advance this policy, Governor Hochul leaves corporate polluters unchecked while taxpayers bear the consequences of worsening air quality and extreme weather,” they wrote. “Without question, delaying concrete action to cut pollution is the more expensive path for New Yorkers. Following President Trump’s retreat from the Paris Agreement yesterday, Governor Hochul pledged to continue America’s work to slash pollution. Now, she must deliver.”
And while Hochul proposed to keep the Environmental Protection Fund at its $400 million status quo, several Adirondack Park nonprofits and environmental groups want to see that increased to $500 million.
Olympic Regional Development Authority
The only specific Adirondack-related funding mentioned in Hochul’s overview budget book was $110 million for ORDA capital improvements.
It’s unclear exactly what projects the funding could be used for, but the administration highlights “continued maintenance and enhancements” to assets “in the North Country, Mid-Hudson, and Capital Region.”
Top photo: The sign outside the Adirondack Park Agency headquarters in Ray Brook. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig
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