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What a Black Swan Means to the Governor’s Tax Cap Proposal on State Land

In his 2007 best selling book, The Black Swan: The Impact of the Highly Improbable, author, Nassim Nicholas Taleb, explores an idea which is relevant to the current debate on whether NY state should pay their full share of taxes on their forest preserve land.

“The book explores one big idea: that history is dominated by rare, unpredictable and extreme events. The author calls these black swans, alluding to the fact that Europeans had seen only white swans until black swans were found in Australia. The Great Depression, the 1987 stock market collapse, and the current financial crisis are examples. Black swans don’t have to be negative. Biotech firms that stumble upon breakthrough cures are black swans.

The human mind, evolved to cope with everyday tasks, deals poorly with rare but consequential events. People assume that the future will be like the recent past but in fact, the most consequential events may not have recent precedents.”

For example: NY state attempting to change how it has paid taxes on its public forest preserve land since the 1880’s. If they stop paying their full share, property taxes will go through the roof. No one really understands the consequences of this because it has never been tried before. However, all readers of the Huletts Current; if this happens, you’ve seen the black swan here already. This will be devastating to the private property owners of the Adirondacks. Please contact your downstate, state representatives. Don’t let the Governor get away with this proposal.

*Book Synopsis – Forbes Magazine February 2, 2009

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Supervisor Banks Named to Committees

Town Supervisor, Robert Banks, was recently named to a number of committees at the county level. He was picked to serve on the Adirondack Community College, Health, Human Services, Public Safety, and Public Works committees.

Many important decisions are made at the committee level and we commend Supervisor Banks for these important assignments.

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You Won’t Find These on the APA Website

9 Counties and 11 Towns Sue Adirondack Park Agency

Nine counties and eleven towns have filed suit against the Adirondack Park Agency to try to reverse new rules that have been implemented, including shoreline building prohibitions on structures that pre-date the APA. Shorefront property owners take note. Hear about it here.

Lewis Family Farm v. APA

“At 1,200 acres, Lewis Family Farm has conserved hundreds of acres of organic soils and removed thousands of tons of accumulated waste, including 15 decrepit, moldy, broken farmhouses. The documents on this site tell how the APA, a regional land use board within the blue line, violated New York State law, and engaged in an abusive, aggressive and frequently dishonest strategy to intimidate the Lewis Family Farm.”

Read about the whole case here. The Lewis family just won their case, but the APA has appealed.

Nothing about either of these on the APA site.

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Bits of Everything

30 Days Are Up – Governor Still Doesn’t Want To Pay

The Post Star has a good article about the Governor’s proposal to cap NY state tax payments to local governments with state forest preserve land. This is a must read for all taxpayers and voters. If you’re a NY state resident, please contact your downstate representatives and tell them NY state has to pay their property taxes. We do.

Dem’s Down to 6

This story from the Post Star is about the finalists who are being considered by the Democrats to be their nominee for Congress in the 20th Congressional District. The special election to fill former Rep Kirsten Gillibrand’s seat will be held 30 days after the Governor calls a special election.

Reynolds Game Farm Won’t Be Closed

The pheasants are going to make it after all. Cruella De Ville is crying.

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Do This for a Green Playable Golf Course

Letters, Faxes, Emails needed by February 28, 2009

The Lake George Park Commission is accepting comments on their proposed stream corridor regulations until February 28, 2009

We have read the regulations and historically more regulations have always meant more costs. We believe these proposed rules will impact two areas that are important to the Huletts Golf Course. The proposed rules require that any work in a stream bed requires a permit; this would impact the yearly cleaning of the reservoir which only supplies water to the golf course. Secondly, any footbridge crossing a stream would need a permit. Any environmental organization could object when a permit was applied for. This would mean that any environmental group, such as the Lake George Waterkeeper, which objected to the dredging of the mouth of Foster Brook, could impact the use of the Golf Course.

I have excerpted my comments that I submitted to the LGPC (with a copy to the HLPOCA) that deal with these two issues:

“The Huletts Golf Course is a uniquely special property. It is the only golf course within walking distance of Lake George. The water source for the Huletts Golf Course is the reservoir/dam on Fairy Creek. The Huletts Landing Property Owners Civic Association is entirely responsible for paying for the upkeep of this water source. Your proposed regulations should exempt all dams/reservoirs that require yearly maintenance. The federal government under a program launched by former Vice President, Al Gore, learned that periodic flushing of the dams on the Colorado River helped marine life downstream. Any work and/or yearly maintenance on existing reservoirs/dams should be exempted.

Likewise, the Huletts Golf Course has many crossings of Fairy Brook for people playing golf. The Huletts Landing Property Owners Civic Association maintains the course at great expense and with much volunteer labor. It would be unreasonable for existing or new pedestrian crossings to be subject to these regulations. Golf Courses in the Lake George basin should be exempted from these rules because they may at time change the location of their natural water obstacle crossings.”

Please submit your comments by February 28, 2009 telling the LGPC that these two activities that benefit the Huletts Golf Course should be exempted from their proposed stream regulations, and state the reason why; pedestrian stream crossings for people playing golf and annual maintenance on the dam that feeds the golf course should not be activities that require a permit. Tell them extreme environmental organizations that object to all human activity should not be given undo weight in this process. Send comments to:

Mr. Michael White, Executive Director of the Lake George Park Commission, PO Box 749, Lake George, NY 12845; By Fax: 518.668.5001; By email: info@lgpc.state.ny.us

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Bits of Everything

Snowy Owl Seen in Area

The Saratogian has a good article about the snowy owl appearing in our area. This is a perfect article to read today because Huletts is under a winter storm advisory, with lots of snow expected.

Ice Fishing Better Understood

This is a story which I missed that came out about two weeks ago which aired on North Country Public Radio. It’s about the start of the ice fishing season and they interview some ice fishermen on Lake George. You can learn something about ice fishing while sitting inside, nice and warm.

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Candidates & Their County Supporters

Here is a short piece from Channel 13 in Albany about which congressional candidates have the most support from the different county chairmen who will be deciding between candidates. (The way Channel 13 shares video, is to alternate video between the weather and a given story. Start the video when you see the list of candidates by county. Otherwise you will get the weather forecast.)

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Luke La Valle – Rest in Peace

We ask for your continued prayers for the Spiess/La Valle family as they cope with the loss of Jennifer’s husband, Luke. Jennifer is the daughter of Peter and Mary Spiess. She worked many summers in the Soda Fountain growing up. Luke battled heroically during his last months and was an inspiration to us all. Luke and Jennifer’s daughter, Abigail Rose, was born on August 30th.

For those who were unable to attend the funeral, here was Jennifer’s touching eulogy to her husband.

Luke was a very engaging guy who was a four-year All-American at Notre Dame who also won the 1998 NCAA men’s sabre title in fencing. Here is a tribute to him on the Notre Dame site and a wonderful piece on his life on CollegeFencing360.com. More than this, he was a great husband, father and friend to many.

Luke was a true hero and will be greatly missed by his family and the Huletts community.

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Bits of Everything

How a Sunken Boat Became a National Treasure

Here is a piece from the Saratogian that details the story of the Forward, a boat which sank in Lake George in the the 1930’s, which was just added to the National Register of Historic Places. This is an interesting story.

Senator Little Fights NY Property Tax Cap Proposal

As a followup to yesterday’s post about the proposal to cap NY state payments on their forest reserve property, Senator Little has posted what she is doing to stop this on her website. Keep those emails and calls coming to our elected officials.

Clean Air Increases Longevity

Here is a short article from National Public Radio about something which seems so simple: breathing clean air lets you live longer. No wonder people like it in Huletts.

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$27 Million is Something to Know About

Previously I had linked to this story about the Governor’s proposal to cap property tax payments on forest preserve land in the Adirondack Park.

North Country Public Radio.

I checked and NY State has over $27 million in assessed property in the Town of Dresden.

This means that, if successful, the Governor will shift a percentage of the tax increases in the future on this land to us – the private property owners in the Town of Dresden.

Here’s what you can do:

Tell the Governor and our representatives that you know about this and it’s not fair and it’s simply not a good idea. NY State made a covenant with the people of NY to pay the taxes on this land when they added it to the forest preserve. It’s worked since 1884, and it shouldn’t be changed now. Tell the Governor when he’s up for reelection, this issue will mean a lot to you.

You can contact the Governor here.

More importantly, if you live in NY, contact both your downstate representative (lookup by zip code on the right) and our Huletts Representative, Tony Jordan, here. Also contact your downstate Senator and our Huletts Senator, Elizabeth Little, here.

Now is the time to speak up. If we don’t, our taxes will be whats going up.