A partnership of five Adirondack economic development organizations has issued an agenda for 2024 focused on actions to support the future of the region’s economy.
The 2024 Adirondack Economic Agenda focuses on five specific topics the groups contend the state and federal government need to take action on to secure the regional economy. The partners agreed that housing, broadband and cellular access, tourism development, economic and business development and action on two pending state constitutional amendments pertaining to the Adirondacks are of critical concern.
Spearheaded by the North Country Chamber of Commerce, the individual partners have always advocated for Adirondack issues, but never with a joint agenda, according to chamber president Garry Douglas.
“We thought it was time for that not only because there are some pressing matters that are really kind of coming to a head, like housing, but also because it strikes us that the 2024 session may provide some real practical opportunities to make some progress," said Douglas. "So it just seemed timely. I think particularly to put forward what we’ve pieced together which is not a big kind of highfaluting agenda of big goals and big aims, but a number of very practical steps that in many cases could be done as a matter of policy or regulation as opposed to legislation. Many of which wouldn’t really cost the state any money. They would just be a matter of doing the approach in a way that would increase effectiveness in our region and therefore making it something that maybe is achievable.”
The Lake Champlain-Lake George Regional Planning Board is partnering on the agenda. Executive Director Beth Gilles says it reflects the major issues facing the Adirondacks.
“There’s no silver bullet for any of them," said Gilles. "It’s just things are different in the Adirondacks than they are in the rest of New York state. They really are just harder. We have an extra layer of government and we have a smaller population and it’s harder to get access to things like broadband and workforce housing. The understanding that the Adirondacks are different and we maybe need a little bit extra help to get us over the finish line.”
Gilles says the partnership and agenda reflects the work groups are doing across the Adirondacks to address a range of concerns.
“We’re entities that work across multiple counties, multiple communities," Gilles said. "We see the similarities in the issues. We see the localized differences. A lot of the things that we are talking about in the agenda has to do with new or improved state funding programs. So even just small tweaks to state funding programs that make rural New York a little more eligible or the creation of new programs. So if the state kind of starts rolling out some new programs and some new funding that kind of address the things that we’re looking at I think we will have shown that we’ve been successful.”
Each partner organization presented a subject area to be considered for the 2024 agenda. Adirondack Association of Towns and Villages Vice President Bill Farber says while he focused on cellular and broadband the partnership will advocate for the entire agenda.
“This really amplifies our ability to come up with some commonly important items," said Farber. "There’s going to be a lot of pressure for funding this year in Albany. And so we felt like we needed to prepare in advance to take those rural issues to Albany in a strategic way to make sure that as they’re rolling out programs and opportunities around broadband and cellular or as they’re rolling out a strategy around affordable housing that it works in small rural areas. To make sure that Albany understands we’ve got the same problems but sometimes the solutions are slightly different because of our scale.”
The agenda was finalized during the Chamber’s annual strategic planning retreat a few weeks ago. The other partners are the Adirondack Economic Development Corporation and the Regional Office of Sustainable Tourism.
