Here's some odd rational. I copied and pasted it here so maybe more will read it. Here's a link in case anyone wants to sound off at this article comment section. I suspect some will.
http://www.poststar.com/news/opinio...cle_ce0f96d4-3852-11df-9cef-001cc4c002e0.html
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Story Discussion Posted: Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:05 pm | (0) Comments
I recently heard the news about the state Senate budget zeroing out funding for the Olympic Regional Development Authority in Lake Placid, which hosted the Winter Olympics in 1932 and 1980.
The Senate budget was birthed by a couple of downstaters - Majority Leader Pedro Espada (D-Bronx) and Finance Chairman Carl Kruger (D-Brooklyn).
If the rest of us show the right stuff like these two guys, we can cut our way out of our budget trap.
Places like the Olympic Arena in Lake Placid, site of the 1980 Miracle on Ice, cost money to run. And sites like the Olympic skating oval, where Eric Heiden won five gold medals, are taking up valuable real estate.
It is true that athletes still come from all over the world to compete at the Olympic venues and tourists still come from all over to see them and to ski on Whiteface and get a thrill speeding down the Olympic bobsled run.
But we're in a crisis. We should not be thinking about our long-term prosperity or even our viability. We need to think about whether we can pay our bills tomorrow.
If saving money now means bankrupting our future, then we must. If we can save about $6 million this year by cutting ORDA's funding, it's worth losing hundreds of millions over the next few years.
To make it personal, let's say you offered to give me $5 right now to quit my job. I'd do it, even though I have no prospects and my family relies on my paycheck, because I'd have that $5 in my pocket, and right now my pocket is empty.
A recent SUNY Plattsburgh study found that ORDA's operations had an annual economic impact on the state of more than $300 million.
But the study also found that ORDA employs more than 800 people and, because of ORDA's operations, another 1,200 people in the North Country region have jobs.
If ORDA laid off all its employees, the state would save a nice chunk of payroll spending.
And, if ORDA was gone, private businesses could lay off the 1,200 people whose jobs depend on ORDA's operations, saving those businesses a whole lot of money.
People say it's hard to cut the budget, but that is because they lack creativity, and vision.
It would not occur to most people to eliminate funding for an agency that makes the state money. But most people do not have the short-term thinking ability with which the Senate Democrats are blessed.
We must seize the day, budget-wise. New York needs to put cash in its pockets.
I have an idea for Espada and Kruger. In 2005, New York magazine estimated the real estate value of 843 acres of public land lying dormant in Manhattan at more than $528 billion.
Can you say "budget crisis resolved"? With Senate Democrats leading the way, our next stop should be Central Park.
Will Doolittle is projects editor of The Post-Star. He may be reached at
[email protected].
Posted in Wdoolittle on Thursday, March 25, 2010 5:05 pm Updated: 5:11 pm. | Tags: Orda, Olympic Regional Development Authority, Whiteface