In a crucial year to pass constitutional amendments, Gov. Kathy Hochul’s proposal that would have freed three of six prisons from development restrictions has failed to make the $268 billion state budget.
In a rare concurrent resolution proposed in her executive budget in January, Hochul sought to separate Mount McGregor Correctional Facility in Saratoga County, Camp Gabriels Correctional Facility in Franklin County and Moriah Shock Incarceration Facility in Essex County from the Adirondack Forest Preserve. The constitutional amendment to Article 14 would have allowed for the “public or private sale for public benefit, which may include economic, environmental, or housing benefits.”
It also would have required the state to purchase at least 1,500 acres to be added to the Adirondack Park, and allowed the town of Brighton to hold water rights at Camp Gabriels. The town needs to create a water district to service nearby residents, whose wells are contaminated by road salt…