News & Opinion About Huletts Landing, N.Y.
This morning, Dresden absentee ballots were counted at the Washington County Board of Elections.
Unofficially, George Gang has been elected to a two year term.
The final vote total after all absentee votes were counted was:
| Town Supervisor | Votes | ||
| George Gang | 140 | ||
| Robert Banks | 116 |
The Lake George Land Conservancy Requests Your Assistance
Read the LGLC’s most recent fundraising appeal documenting how close they are to finishing their capital campaign to pay for the Last Great Shoreline. (2 pages)
Huletts Post Office Fall Newsletter
Learn about the new lines painted in front of the Huletts Post Office (and much more).
Dresden and Putnam’s Supervisors Defend Washington County Beach
The Wash blog reports on what Washington county’s two most northern towns on Lake George are up against.
A new premium retailer of Verizon wireless phones and services has recently opened in Whitehall. Open weekdays 10:00 am – 7:00 pm and Saturday 10:00 am – 6:00 pm, this new store will offer sales and service on Verizon wireless phones and sales of Time Warner cable and DirecTV.
For more visit www.awsstores.com
The official ballot text for Proposal # 2 reads as follows:
Additional Civil Service Credit for Veterans with Disabilities Certified Post-Appointment
The proposed amendment to section 6 of article 5 of the Constitution would entitle a veteran who has received civil service credit for a civil service appointment or promotion and subsequently is certified as disabled to additional civil service credit at a subsequent appointment or promotion. Shall the proposed amendment be approved?”
What it Means:
The measure would benefit individuals who, for whatever reason, were not classified as a veteran with disabilities at the time of their first civil service appointment. Approving this measure would fix this error.
This is basically an amendment to correct an error. The League of Women Voters have noted that they cannot find any opponents or opposing arguments.
This year there are 6 ballot proposals on the general election ballot for voters to decide.
I thought I would go through these one at a time this week.
The official ballot text for Proposal # 1 reads as follows:
Authorizing Casino Gaming
“The proposed amendment to section 9 of article 1 of the Constitution would allow the Legislature to authorize up to seven casinos in New York State for the legislated purposes of promoting job growth, increasing aid to schools, and permitting local governments to lower property taxes through revenues generated. Shall the amendment be approved?”
What it Means:
The measure would allow the legislature to authorize up to seven casinos in the state, specifically for the stated purposes of promoting job growth, increasing funding to schools and permitting local governments to lower property taxes.
While not transcribed into the amendment nor ballot measure language, the Governor and legislature have agreed to a two phase expansion of casinos if the measure passes.
Phase 1: Allow for the construction and running of four total casinos in upstate New York – two in the Catskills, one in the Southern Tier and one near Albany.
Phase 2: After seven years pass, allow for the construction and running of three casinos in New York City.
An agreement between the state and St. Regis Mohawk Tribe has given the tribe a monopoly on casinos in certain counties, including neighboring Warren and Essex counties. While technically a long shot, Washington county would be eligible for one Casino if the measure passes, which I detailed here in this former post.
Learn More:
For a full analysis of both the pros and cons of Prop 1: check out this page on BallotPedia.org
Please know that the November 5th General Election is fast approaching. Here is how to obtain an absentee ballot if you are registered to vote in NY state.
How to Vote by Absentee Ballot
Applications for Absentee Ballots are available at the county board of elections.
You may also download a PDF version of the New York State Absentee Ballot Application Form.
Upon completion, applications must be mailed and postmarked to your county board no later than the seventh day before the election (October 29th) or delivered in person no later than the day before the election.
You may also request an Absentee Ballot by sending a letter to your county board of elections. The letter must be received by your county board no earlier than 30 days and no later than seven days before the election. The letter must contain the following information:
the address where you are registered
an address where the ballot is to be sent
the reason for the request, and
the signature of the voter
An application form will be mailed with your ballot. The application form must be completed and returned with your ballot.
Washington County Board of Elections
383 Broadway
Fort Edward, NY 12828
Phone: 518-746-2180
Fax: 518-746-2179
This week it was reported that the The General Electric plant on Route 4 in Fort Edward is slated for closure. GE announced its intent to move capacitor production to Clearwater, Fla. This is part of a larger national trend where businesses and people are flocking to low tax states.
A new book, How Money Walks – How $2 Trillion Moved Between the States, and Why It Matters by Travis Brown offers hard data on the economic contest among the states.
Brown uses official IRS statistics to produce hard data about the massive movement of American working wealth within the country. Between 1995 and 2010, the nine states with no personal income taxes gained $146.2 billion in working wealth. The nine states with the highest personal income tax rates lost $107.4 billion. The 10 states with the lowest per capita state-local tax burdens gained $69.9 billion. The 10 states with the highest per capita state-local tax burdens lost $139 billion. Simply put money, businesses, and people moved from high-tax to low-tax states.
And the tax that seemed to matter the most? The personal income tax. The states with no income taxes gained the greatest wealth, while the states with the highest income taxes lost the most.
Mr. Brown is on a national speaking tour promoting his book, which is highlighted in the video below.
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kmMYORkU-No
Sadly, New York state is one of the states losing jobs, businesses, and income due to it’s high tax status.
Mr. Brown’s website has a “Money Walks App” which lets users track by state, not only how income is shifting, which jurisdictions are benefiting.
http://www.howmoneywalks.com/web-app/
Historically, there’s always been some type of chatter about locating a gambling casino somewhere on Lake George.
This year Governor Cuomo has proposed four new gaming casinos throughout upstate New York. You can read more about the Governor’s ideas in the Albany Times Union.
What is interesting to note is that both Warren and Essex counties are now ineligible for one of these new proposed casino’s under an agreement reached May 21st between the state of New York and the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe. However, Washington County would still be eligible.
Let me try to explain.
The St. Regis Mohawk Tribe is located in the northern part of New York state. They have had three-year dispute with New York over the tribe’s gaming exclusivity zone and revenue-sharing from its slot machine profits. The May 21st agreement stipulates that the St. Regis Mohawk Tribe will pay $30 million owed to the state and 25% of future gaming revenues. In return, the tribe will have exclusive gaming rights in an eight county zone. The counties are: Essex, Clinton, Franklin, Hamilton, Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence and Warren.
This means that any new casino could not be located in those counties. While any site in Washington county would be a long-shot, it’s Washington county, and not our two neighboring Lake George counties, that’s still in the running for a new gambling arena.
This Wednesday (June 5th) at 10:00 a.m., the Washington County Government Operations Committee has scheduled a special meeting to reconsider a local law that would make the transport of aquatic invasive species illegal within Washington county.
The County Board of Supervisors last month narrowly defeated the law that would have imposed fines on those who failed to remove visible aquatic species from their boat or trailer. Eight supervisors voted in favor and eight voted against the proposed law. Because Washington county uses a weighted voting system based on population in each town, the final margin was 2083 against to 2011 for the proposed law.
I spoke to Dresden Supervisor Bob Banks who sponsored the resolution and voted for the proposed law. He was disappointed that it did not pass but was hopeful that it would be revisited.
Those opposed to the law were concerned about unintended consequences and how the environmental assessment was done.
The Post Star reported on the original vote here.
The special meeting scheduled for June 5th is to revisit the issues involved.
The Clemons Post Office.
Somehow I missed this, but the Clemons Post Office went to a two hour per day schedule in March 2013. It is now open from 8:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. daily.
While this is a big change for our neighbors in Clemons at least the post office remains open. It had been scheduled to close permanently but it won a reprieve from the Postal Service.
These new hours will be the norm for Clemons going forward.
I recently learned that the new hours for the now privately run Whitehall Transfer station will be: Wednesday, Friday and Saturday – 8-4pm.
No longer will trash stickers be used, instead it’ll be “pay at the transfer station” using cash or cc.
They’re doing a sticker buyback program this week.
The State of New York recently announced an agreement to purchase two parcels in Whitehall. The Saddles, a 2,540 acre property on Lake Champlain’s South Bay, and Spruce Point, a 726 acre parcel between the Lake Champlain and Lake George basins.
Governor Cuomo and DEC Commissioner Martens recently announced the planned acquisition of 69,000 acres throughout the Adirondacks. This planned acquisition will be the largest single addition to the Adirondack Forest Preserve in more than a century. Two of the parcels to be acquired, while outside the Adirondack blue line, are in Whitehall.
The Saddles on Lake Champlain. Looking East toward Whitehall. (Photo Credit: Alan Cedarstrom. Click image to see full-scale.)
The first local parcel is referred to as the Saddles, a 2,540 acre parcel acquired by the Nature Conservancy in 2007 with the intent that it would be sold to the state. As one heads over the South Bay bridge toward Whitehall, the Saddles can be seen in the distance. The tract features cliffs and more than 2,250 feet of undeveloped shoreline on Lake Champlain’s South Bay. The land includes streams, marshes, swamps and floodplain forests that encompass the lowlands of South Bay. The tract includes areas where the Eastern timber rattlesnake and peregrine falcon reside.
The second 726 acre parcel is referred to as Spruce Point or Dolph Pond. As you leave Whitehall, heading south toward Fort Ann, you can see the ridges on top of this parcel. Presently it is under exclusive lease through September 30, 2013 but will be open to the public in October 2013. The property features interesting ridges, a variety of forest types, including Appalachian oak hickory and hemlock northern hardwood, and provides habitat for black bear, white tail deer and other wildlife.
My post would not be complete without thanking Emily DeSantis, Director of Public Information for the Dept. of Environmental Conservation who helped me compile the information for this story.
Both Washington and Essex counties recently announced decisions to prevent the spread of invasive species into Lake George.
Washington County will hold a public hearing on May 17th at 10:05 am in the Fort Edward county center to solicit public input on a proposed county-wide invasive species ban. Under the ordinance, it would be illegal to launch a boat that has any invasive species visible to the eye on any part of the boat.
An Essex County committee passed a resolution at their April meeting in support of a Warren county resolution calling for a ban on the transportation of invasive species. The Essex County Attorney will start working on a local Essex County law that would do the same.
Earlier this month, the Washington County Board of Supervisors approved a lease with an option to buy of the five county owned transfer stations with Earth, Waste and Metal, a Vermont company.
Most Huletts residents are familiar with the Whitehall transfer station and may be asking what effect this transfer will have for residents that dispose of their trash there.
The county lost a combined $600,000 on the five transfer stations in 2012 and had been in talks for some time to privatize the transfer stations.
Earth, Metal and Waste, a company which operates a number of transfer stations in Vermont, will lease the facilities under a five- year agreement that includes a purchase option.
The supervisors voted 17-0 to approve the agreement which will see the county receive $5,000 per month to lease the stations with 60% of the lease payment credited toward the $1.47 million purchase price if the company chooses to buy the stations within 12 months. If the company exercises the right to buy after the first 12 months, a lower portion of the rental proceeds would apply to the purchase price.
I spoke to Dresden Town Supervisor, Bob Banks, and learned that the official date that the agreement will go into effect will be June 1st. That is when Earth, Waste and Metal will begin operating the Whitehall transfer station. They will continue to accept transfer stickers previously purchased from the town clerk and will also have a cash register on site. Stickers that were previously purchased should be good for at least another year. Supervisor Banks sees additional hours being added to the station during the summer months.
“This company is big into recycling,” stated Supervisor Banks, “they will do a good job and residents of the town will be happy.”