Adirondack groups push for funding amid Hochul’s budget cuts  

Environmental conservation advocates request additional funds for key Adirondack projects  

By Gwendolyn Craig

Adirondack stakeholders asked the state Legislature to reinstate program funds for cuts proposed in Gov. Kathy Hochul’s $252 billion budget on Tuesday during a hearing in Albany. They also requested new funding for a carrying capacity study of Adirondack water bodies, title insurance for land acquisitions and more support for forest rangers and environmental conservation officers.

Staff from the Police Benevolent Association (PBA) of New York State, The Nature Conservancy, Protect the Adirondacks, Open Space Institute, Adirondack Mountain Club and Adirondack Council appeared before lawmakers at the end of an approximately 12-hour environmental conservation and energy budget hearing. 

Chairs of the Senate and Assembly’s environmental conservation committees – Assemblymember Deborah Glick, D-Manhattan, and Sen. Peter Harckham, D- Peekskill – asked multiple questions of the Adirondack stakeholders. Ranking member of the environmental conservation committee Assemblyman Matthew Simpson, R-Lake George, also asked multiple questions and was the only Adirondack-area lawmaker present for the entire hearing.

Lawmakers spent the first part of the day questioning top Hochul administration officials including Sean Mahar, interim commissioner of the state Department of Environmental Conservation and Doreen Harris, president and CEO of the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority.

The joint hearing of the state Assembly and Senate is among over a dozen that will help inform their one-house budgets. A final state budget is due April 1.

Here were some of the more prominent requests from Adirondack-related groups.

MORE TO EXPLORE: Watch the budget hearing below. Adirondack testimonies begin around 10:47:25.

Reinstating Hochul’s proposed funding cuts

1. WILDERNESS STEWARDSHIP, VISITOR SAFETY: Hochul’s budget proposal included $8 million for wilderness stewardship and visitor safety for the Catskills and the Adirondacks, down from last year’s $10 million. The Adirondack Council and the Adirondack Mountain Club are requesting an increase to $12 million. The Open Space Institute and Protect the Adirondacks asked funding to be reinstated to $10 million.
2. LAKE SURVEY: Hochul’s executive budget proposed $1.5 million for a survey of climate change and Adirondack lake ecosystems. Adirondack Council is requesting an increase to $3 million for the survey, up from $2 million last year. Protect the Adirondacks is requesting $2.5 million.
3. CLIMATE INSTITUTE: Hochul proposed $1.25 million for the Timbuctoo Institute, a partnership between SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry and CUNY Medgar Evers College. The Adirondack Council and Protect the Adirondacks asked for funding to be reinstated to $2.1 million.
4. DIVERSITY: Hochul proposed $300,000 for the Adirondack Diversity Initiative. The Adirondack Council asked funding to be reinstated to $420,000.
5. ADK VISITOR CENTERS:  Adirondack Mountain Club requested $250,000 be reinstated for its High Peaks Welcome Center and Cascade Visitor Center. Hochul did not include them in her budget.
6. LAND ACQUISITION: The Nature Conservancy requested the Environmental Protection Fund’s land acquisition line item be increased from $37.5 million to $40 million. Last year, the fund was $39.5 million. Protect the Adirondacks requested the state to increase the line item to $50 million if the Environmental Protection Fund remains at $400 million, but increased to $100 million if the EPF is $500 million.
7. RESEARCH AND MONITORING: Protect the Adirondacks requested $200,000 for the Adirondack Watershed Institute for its research and monitoring and the Atmospheric Sciences Research Center Whiteface Mountain Field Station. Last year it received $100,000 but was excluded from Hochul’s budget.

New funding requests for the Adirondacks

1. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE: Hochul proposed funding the Clean Water Infrastructure Act with $500 million. Groups are requesting $600 million.
2. ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION FUND: Hochul’s budget proposed a $400 million environmental protection fund, a pot of money that subsidizes most Adirondack Park-related projects. Adirondack Council, Adirondack Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy, Open Space Institute and Protect the Adirondacks are requesting that it grow to $500 million.
3. CARRYING CAPACITY STUDY:  Adirondack Council and Protect the Adirondacks requested $1 million for the DEC and Adirondack Park Agency to conduct a carrying capacity study of water bodies in the Adirondacks. They argued the Adirondack Park State Land Master Plan has required such a study for over 50 years. 
4. INCREASE DEC STAFF: Hochul’s budget increases staff at the DEC by 58. The Adirondack Mountain Club requested DEC’s staff grow by 225, including staff for its Divisions of Lands and Forests Operations. The PBA of New York State requested additional environmental conservation officers and forest rangers. Environmental conservation officers also requested more district attorneys to take on their cases.
5. FOREST PRESERVE MANAGEMENT:  Adirondack Mountain Club and The Nature Conservancy requested DEC capital project funding for forest preserve management be increased from $90 million to $100 million.
6. EQUIPMENT FOR ECOS/RANGERS: The PBA of New York State requested more funding for zodiac boats for flood responses, off-shore boats to patrol the Atlantic Ocean, new snowmobiles, ATVs, body cameras and other equipment. Some of their machines, said EnCon Police Officers Director Matthew Krug, are older than the department’s newest recruits.
7. MUSEUM EXHIBIT: Protect the Adirondacks requested $1 million for the Adirondack Experience Museum’s “African American Experience in the Adirondacks” exhibit. 
8. WILDLIFE RESEARCH: Protect the Adirondacks requested $1 million in the Environmental Protection Fund for wildlife research on state lands. It suggested $500,000 be used for a gray wolf assessment.
9. ROAD SALT REDUCTION: Protect the Adirondacks requested $500,000 in the Environmental Protection Fund for road salt reduction projects in the park.
10. INVASIVE SPECIES MANAGEMENT: Protect the Adirondacks requested funding for invasive species management be increased from $18.55 million to $20 million.

Policy priorities

1. TITLE INSURANCE: Although it was mentioned in Hochul’s State of the State agenda, her budget did not contain any language about using title insurance to streamline land acquisitions. Adirondack Mountain Club, The Nature Conservancy, Open Space Institute and others said they hoped Hochul would include it in her 30-day budget amendments. If she did not, they asked legislators to include it in their one-house budgets. New York land trusts are currently holding over 96,000 acres for the state at a fair market value of over $150 million, in part due to land title issues, but also due to staffing and other state slowdowns.
2. APA ACT: Protect the Adirondacks requested lawmakers update the Adirondack Park Agency Act, a 50-year-old law that created the Adirondack Park Agency. The agency is charged with long-range planning and overseeing public and private development in the 6-million-acre park. Claudia Braymer, executive director of Protect the Adirondacks, said many of its provisions are outdated, need clarification and need updating to address issues like climate change, housing and water-quality protection. 
3. CAP-AND-INVEST: The Nature Conservancy called on the Hochul administration to release draft regulatory details of a cap-and-invest program, which it expects to create a $3 billion annual fund for climate projects.
4. ALLOCATION OF FINES: The PBA of New York State is requesting lawmakers to pass a bill that would funnel fines collected from environmental law enforcement investigations back to its department for more staff, equipment and other needs. Currently those fines go into the state’s general fund.
5. PENSION PARITY: Though Hochul and former Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed multiple times a pension parity bill for forest rangers, environmental conservation officers, SUNY and park police, the PBA of New York State continued to ask lawmakers to support a bill again.

Top photo: State Assemblymembers Deborah Glick and Matthew Simpson at the environmental conservation and energy budget hearing on Tuesday in Albany. Photo by Gwendolyn Craig