I submitted this piece to The Lincoln Eagle early this morning.
Newburgh,
NY, July 30--Lincoln Eagle exclusive. About 200 people, mostly
town-and-county-level politicians and bureaucrats, descended upon the Newburgh
campus of Orange County Community College to participate in Engage Mid-Hudson's
kickoff. Engage Mid-Hudson is one of 10 regional
sustainability groups that Governor Andrew Cuomo has funded through the New
York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The mid-Hudson
region extends north from Westchester through Rockland, Putnam, and Orange, to
Dutchess and Ulster Counties. Co-chairs
David Church, planning commissioner of Orange County, and Thomas Madden,
commissioner of community development and sustainability for the Town of
Greenburgh, led the meeting.
Assemblyman
Frank Skartados, representing the Newburgh (100th) Assembly District, offered a
few opening remarks. He thought that Engage Mid-Hudson is out to streamline
government. A paradox became evident a
few minutes later when Mr. Church divulged that Governor Andrew Cuomo had spent
$100 million to fund the 10 regional sustainability groups (according to
NYSERDA's website the booty was split evenly across the 10 regions). I asked Mr. Church whether the aim of
streamlining government is consistent with eight-digit slush funds. Mr. Church's answer was that the endowment
reflects the voters' will, even though the senior elected official present, Mr.
Skartados, had just expressed a preference for streamlining government. Also,
since the majority of New York residents in my lifetime have fled the state
because of excessive costs and mismanagement, it is difficult to know whose
preferences Mr. Cuomo has in mind: waste's victims or its progenitors.
A second
paradox followed. Engage Mid-Hudson
bills itself as open to public opinion, but a number of pro-freedom activists
were present, and they called out questions during Mr. Church's talk. Mr. Church handled the disagreement well, but
several members in the audience began to berate the pro-freedom activists. One, whom one of the freedom activists alleged
is the owner of a green development firm that stands to profit from Engage
Mid-Hudson, suggested to Mr. Church that the freedom activists be banned from
future meetings. It would seem that
owners of businesses that stand to directly profit from Engage Mid-Hudson
should be required to identify themselves at the beginning of meetings. It seems as likely as not that Engage
Mid-Hudson is just one more Democratic Party scam, like Maurice Hinchey's green
development follies and Barack Obama's bailouts.
A third
paradox became evident when Mr. Church announced six working groups, including
one for economic development. Herb
Oringel, an IBM retiree and chair of the economic development consortium,
claimed that Engage Mid-Hudson could bring jobs to the region. Activist Glenda
Rose McGee asked what kind of jobs could a tax-based bureaucracy like Engage
Mid-Hudson create. The question was a
good one. Henry Hazlitt's Economics in One Lesson explains why the
broken window fallacy, an economic fallacy that has re-gained currency under
the Bush and Obama administrations, is incorrect. Government cannot make work by breaking
windows. The reason is that to pay for
the broken window repair someone must be taxed.
The taxed money reduces private sector demand. By advocating government spending and higher
taxes, groups like Engage Mid-Hudson destroy legitimate jobs, jobs that satisfy
legitimate market demand, and replace them with jobs that reflect the needs of
politicians and special interests.
Mr.
Oringel's response to Ms. McGee was not reassuring. His chief example of jobs
creation was the turning of Sing Sing Correctional Facility into a tourist
attraction. I would feel better if a
private developer were to take the project because Mr. Oringel's IBM experience
has not prepared him to assess market risk of this kind. For example, might
Steve Wynn be willing to take gambling up the river? Engage Mid-Hudson and
Governor Cuomo don't know. Since they are not going to invest their own money,
they don't care in the same way that Steve Wynn would. There is little
difference between Mr. Oringel's project and window breaking.
In a
question-and-answer period Ms. McGee raised a further point: regional
sustainability plans are likely a pretext for more intensive intervention and
regulation. In particular, the Towns of Woodstock, Olive and Saugerties have
seen proposals for the construction of unneeded planned housing projects
tightly linked to sustainability plans.
I raised a
question as to Engage Mid-Hudson's identity. I asked whether it is a government
organization or a non-government organization.
Mr. Church said that it is neither. This was a fourth paradox because if
Engage Mid-Hudson is neither a government nor a non-government organization,
then it does not exist and it cannot cash NYSERDA's $10 million check. Tsk, tsk--a
Zen-like conundrum any green business crony can ponder.
Rife with
paradox the meeting was unpersuasive.
What is the purpose of Engage Mid-Hudson beyond providing funding for
crooked, green businesses? In Canada and
elsewhere NGOs have been used to subvert republican governmental structures and
regulatory authority. In the tradition of New York's honest graft, are we to
expect just one more deal in the Plunkitt tradition or a more serious incursion
on republicanism?
