It's no secret that I have been critical of the St. Lawrence River Valley Re-Development Agency, or let's say RVRDA for short. The latest developments, as of a few weeks ago, show us that NYPA is willing to go along with the idea of us "monetizing" the 25 megawatts of hydro power, which means we can sell the any power (like NYPA does) that is not being used by local companies and then use the money for local economic development projects.
Of course, the wrinkle is that NYPA will keep the money for us "in a separate account" that we can then use as we see fit supposedly. This idea, which sounds good at first, brings about a whole bunch of new questions: How did we get from NYPA CEO Richard Kessel saying in December that NYPA wanted no "day-to-day involvement with the RVRDA and would only want to see an annual report and audit" to the power giant keeping our profits from the sale of our power into one of their separate accounts? How do we access our money in NYPA's account? Will NYPA have some kind of input on how we spend our money? How will our money be protected from the state (i.e. the governor and the legislature) the next time they want to raid NYPA's surplus to fill one of the huge, gaping holes in the state's budget?
All of these details still need to be worked out by the Local Government Task Force, but the task force, under the leadership of St. Lawrence County Treasurer Bob McNeil, hasn't met in over two months. The NYPA board is supposed to pass judgement on this latest plan at its meeting in May, but the local governments haven't approved it yet because the task force has failed to meet. Word is we haven't met because we're waiting for NYPA's mid-level bureaucrats to forward to us a draft contract.
How long does it take to draft a relatively simple contract? How far in advance of the May meeting will the local governments see it and be asked to approve it? Do you notice a pattern here?
It seems when it comes to the RVRDA and our power and our money, there are a whole lot of unanswered questions. Guess we should just wait for NYPA to pat us on the head and tell us what good children we are!!
Its gone and lost forever. I agree that they will use the money to fill a budget gap somewhere down the road. Don't we all work for NYC anyway?
ReplyDeleteWe can only hope meat is on the bone from NYPA
ReplyDeleteIf the Local Government Task Force would "come out of the closet" and allow common citizens to be involved in the decision making process, perhaps there would be some progress, propelled forward by the weight of public opinion! Don't try to say that the people of St. Lawrence County are only interested in the use of the River to bring jobs, I have the names of hundreds and hundreds who are concerned deeply about the environmental quality of the River and the North Country. OPEN THE PROCESS!!!!! Luke Dailey
ReplyDelete