`State of emergency’ could be`state of opportunity’

Spending in debt ceiling deal will only be reduced modestly.

By Ken Tingley

This community has a long history of asking, “How can I help?”

For being neighborly.

For reaching out with empathy and compassion.

But on May 23, Warren County Board of Supervisors Chairman Kevin Geraghty declared a state of emergency.

We’ve had states of emergency before - usually after a foot of snow or severe ice storm - but this was because we feared visitors.

That’s a first.

This was panic.

Warren County joined approximately 30 other upstate counties to head off large numbers of migrants seeking asylum in upstate.

In one sense, this is nothing more than paperwork that preserves the county’s ability to get federal or state aid should the migrant crisis have a financial impact on the county.

I suppose that is prudent, but it still doesn’t have a good look to it.

Approximately 37,000 migrants have been delivered to New York City in recent months and that has strained the city’s social services. There has been an uptick in arrivals over the past month. The plan was to ease the strain by sending volunteer asylum seekers upstate.

Migrants, who volunteered to leave the city, began to trickle into communities around the state beginning in Newburgh where they were welcomed.

On May 12, there was a widely reported story that homeless veterans were being kicked out of hotels to accommodate migrants. The story was not true. That’s when the politics kicked in, and some panic.

On May 16, a state Supreme Court judge barred New York City from sending migrants to Orange County. There were nearly 200 already there.

On May 17 and 18, Greene and Sullivan counties declared states of emergency. Warren County followed on May 23.

On May 28, more than 20 asylum seekers arrived at a hotel in Albany. It was part of an agreement between New York City and Albany County. Gov. Hochul asked the federal government to expedite work authorization permits for migrants as a way to address the regional labor shortage.

Geraghty formed a new task force from multiple departments in Warren County to address an emergency that has not yet occurred in Warren County. Perhaps, that is prudent. It depends what the plan is to help.

Perhaps the task force could rally local citizens to help out with donations, job opportunities and housing. It’s not a secret local businesses are always short workers in the summer months, and since the pandemic, year round.

Warren County should have proclaimed a “State of Opportunity” instead of a state of emergency. That makes more sense.

Instead of pounding the drums of fear - at least that’s what a state of emergency sounds like - we could emphasize that Hometown, USA wants to help and that we are not afraid to welcome people different from ourselves who are looking for a new lease on life.

As part of the state of emergency, Warren County declared that owners of hotel, campgrounds, rental properties, etc. must get permission from the Warren County Board of Supervises to house relocated migrants.

“Warren County residents and leaders have a long history of welcoming individuals from around the world to our beautiful county,” Geraghty wrote in a news release. “However, a rapid increase in individuals in need of social services, public health assistance and other services provided by our county, city and town agencies has the potential to create significant problems for Warren County and municipalities across the county without proper planning and funding.”

In an amazing coincidence, Saratoga County Board of Supervisors Chairman Todd Kusnierz said the exact same thing.

It still sounds like they know this looks bad. It sounds like they know it looks like panic.

I’m looking forward to hearing Geraghty’s plan to address a “possible” crisis because this could be an opportunity for business owners and asylum seekers.

This is an opportunity to help others and show the world how to be neighborly.

The rhetoric form politicians is concerning. Is the state of emergency really about being eligible to for state funds, or is it something a little more sinister.

Personally, I think Warren County should proclaim a state of emergency every time Americade comes to town.

Debt-ceiling deal

Rep. Elise Stefanik tweeted out last week that the debt ceiling bill was the “largest deficit reduction bill in American history” and it would “restore fiscal sanity and rein in reckless spending.”

That’s a bit overstated.

The cuts are only modest and only to a small corner of the federal budget. But that is certainly better than nothing.

Stefanik fails to mention that it was the Republican tax cuts that sent the deficit spiraling in 2017. That was a bill she voted against.

The federal government has not had a surplus in its budget since 2001. Deficits spiked after 9/11, the bank crisis in 2008, the added tax cuts during the Trump administration and during the pandemic.

Tapping the breaks on spending was long overdue, but this bill will not solve the problem of overspending.

Work requirements

North County Public Radio reported last week that rural areas upstate will be seeing more strain on food security because of the work requirement in the debt ceiling bill.

Republicans insisted the work requirement for receiving food stamps be raised from age 49 to age 54. Anyone 54 or younger who is deemed able-bodied and doesn’t have dependents will have to work or participate in job training to received SNAP benefits.

Officials at various agencies in the North County believed that will increase food insecurity around the region. That’s probably true in Warren and Washington counties as well.