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July 3, 2007

Sayward describes the learning curve of sea-change

Spitzer reconsiders non-resident Booth, Sayward reports

By KIM SMITH DEDAM

ELIZABETHTOWN -- A legislative update Monday brought a little insight from Albany to Essex County.

Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward (R-Willsboro) addressed supervisors at the full board session Monday and described the ongoing political shift in Gov. Eliot Spitzer's charge.

"We were in a learning curve all year," Sayward said, noting "record-setting spending" in the state's $220 billion budget.

"I'm still getting used to saying that word billion.'"

The final budget proposal was placed on legislators' desks four hours before the vote, Sayward said.

That didn't leave enough time to glean many details from the spending plan.

"So I voted against the entire budget," Sayward said.

She is one of three Republicans, all women, who represent the North Country in Albany.

Along with Sen. Betty Little (R-Queensbury) and Assemblywoman Janet Duprey (R-Plattsburgh), the envoy has become known as the North Country "trifecta," Sayward said.

APA CHAIRMAN

A number of key Adirondack issues remain undecided, including who will become chairman of the Adirondack Park Agency.

Sayward confirmed Monday that Spitzer has decided not to appoint Richard Booth, a professor of land-use planning at Cornell University, to the post.

The nomination, made in late April, raised concern among Adirondack lawmakers and several local interest groups because Booth lives and works in Ithaca, which is outside the Adirondack Park.

There has been only one interim APA chairman, James Townsend, who did not reside in the park.

"Ms. (Judith) Enck (deputy secretary for the environment) brought Mr. Booth to my office, and, don't misunderstand, I think he is an excellent choice for commissioner," Sayward said.

She asked Booth how available he would be to trouble-shoot Adirondack issues from Ithaca and was reassured he would make it a point to be available.

But, later in the conversation, he told Sayward and Enck how difficult it was to get away even once a year to the Booth family camp on Cumberland Head in Plattsburgh.

Sayward, eyebrows raised, told the supervisors she highlighted that statement to Enck.

At a breakfast meeting the Tuesday before session closed, Sayward said, Spitzer told a group of North Country legislators he had decided not to appoint Booth as APA chairman.

"He (Spitzer) said he would be appointing someone from the park, but he didn't say who.

"We considered it a success," Sayward said, "in keeping the chairmanship in the Adirondacks."

Sayward expects the nomination will be made "if we are back (in session) in July."

TAX REFORM

In addition to appointments, Sayward said, Albany has not made progress in looking for property-tax-reform measures.

"STAR got extended instead of doing any reform," she told the county supervisors.

The New York State United Teachers refuted property-tax cap options and successfully stalled the process.

"The proposal has been changed," Sayward said. "They took out any language that said the commission would look at all aspects of property-tax reform."

After the meeting, Sayward said California's property-tax cap, known as Proposition 13, works to keep existing property assessments at about cost-of-living increases every three years by revaluing property when it is sold.

Undervaluing is monitored in that state by auditors who visit when a property goes on the market.

As a ranking member of the Environmental Conservation Committee, Sayward said there has been successful discussion toward creating a Adirondacks land bank, a pool of property-purchase options for towns to use if they need to expand for public infrastructure.

The tenor of discussion has been good, she said.

"I haven't actually been kicked out of the room."

But still, there are some signs -- "not good ones" -- that the Department of Environmental Conservation is skirting around local veto options in open-space planning, she said.

Supervisors thanked Sayward for taking their concerns to Albany and, in particular, for helping raise awareness of the danger of cell-phone dead zones on the Northway and throughout towns and villages.

They expressed appreciation with a standing ovation for the assemblywoman, who previously served as chairwoman of the Essex County Board of Supervisors.

kdedam@pressrepublican.com

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