§ 847-a. Statement of legislative findings and purpose. The
legislature hereby finds that for approximately twenty-five years, the
Tug Hill commission has provided essential planning and technical
services to the sixty-two local governments and to residents in the
twenty-one hundred square mile Tug Hill region.

The legislature further finds that, lying between Lake Ontario, the
Black River and Oneida Lake, is a region of approximately twenty-one
hundred square miles that encompasses towns and villages scattered in a
vast acreage of forest and farm land. The core of the region encompasses
more than eight hundred square miles of remote forest land and the
headwaters of several major rivers, with much of the area inaccessible
by public road. These lands and waters are important to the state of New
York as municipal water supply, as wildlife and plant habitat, as key
resources supporting forest industry, farming, recreation and tourism
and traditional land uses such as hunting and fishing. State assistance
through the Tug Hill commission to help Tug Hill local governments and
organizations is merited and needed because of the importance of these
resources to the state, and because of the small population and relative
poverty of the region.

The legislature further finds that the Tug Hill commission, originally
established in nineteen hundred seventy-two as a temporary state
commission, has studied the Tug Hill region, provided technical
assistance to the region's local governments and reported to the
governor and legislature regarding the conservation and development of
the Tug Hill region. The purpose of the commission is to enable local
governments, private organizations, and individuals to shape the future
of the Tug Hill region, and to demonstrate and communicate ways that
this can be done by other rural areas. Commission programs are geared
toward the conservation and productive use of the natural resources of
the region, strengthening of the long-term economy, employment, cultural
and social resources, and the general well-being of the rural
communities. The commission has facilitated local action as the most
enduring and cost-effective method of retaining the rural and remote
character of this land, and of retaining the independent way of life of
its people and their economy.

The legislature finds that the Tug Hill commission's track record
demonstrates its capability for working together with towns and villages
for appropriate community and economic development and resource
protection. Its continuation will enable municipalities to perform their
basic local government functions.

It is the purpose of this article to insure continued municipal
assistance, conservation, preservation and development in the region by
continuing the Tug Hill commission, in order to serve those local
government and regional needs, now and in the future.