Assemblyman D. Billy Jones looks out from the balcony of the Olympic Center in Lake Placid during a visit with Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie on June 27. (Enterprise photo — Sydney Emerson)

SARANAC LAKE — With the legislative session over, Assemblyman Billy Jones visited Saranac Lake on Tuesday and spoke about some of the top issues facing his district.

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Housing

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The state Legislature passed a $237 billion state budget on April 20 with a slew of measures aimed at addressing the affordable housing crisis.

Jones said on Tuesday there wasn’t as many North-Country specific housing policies in the budget as he would’ve liked. The government needs ways to address the shrinking housing stock — something that’s impacting local businesses’ ability to hire newcomers, he said.

“It has gone to an area (since the pandemic) where we need to get people more housing stock here in the Adirondacks, here in the North Country. That’s the biggest complaint I hear from people,” he said. “A lot of the difficulty in relaying that message at the state level is, a lot of (discussion) has been on, ‘Well, let’s just get affordable housing, and then that will work.’ Well, a lot of our employees, businesses, hospitals, institutions are looking for the housing stock.”

Jones said a good example of a local housing project is Fawn Valley, a development of 22 owner-occupied homes, in Lake Placid. The project, spearheaded by Lake Placid housing nonprofit Homestead Development Corporation, has income qualifications meant to gear its units to local essential workers and keep housing costs affordable.

Incentives for housing nonprofits like Homestead Development could be the key to increasing the North Country’s housing stock, Jones said. Finding ways to help out “small” landlords and tenants is key, too. He also said he supported land banks and renovations of zombie properties — approaches to increase the housing stock.

“Housing stock, we just do not have it here,” Jones said. “The supply is not meeting the demand. How often, too, do you see new housing? There are instances, but not nearly at the pace of what we need.”

Housing quality is often an issue, too, Jones added.

“People want to live in good, safe housing — nice housing. The less and less we have of that, the worse it gets,” he said.

For years, Jones said, the biggest concern of local and state leaders was to get people to move to New York. Now, the state — and specifically, the North Country — has the people, but not the housing to support them.

“We wanted people here to keep our schools, our population, up — keep our hospital healthcare system going, obviously provide jobs for people. But, somewhere along the line, we didn’t think, ‘Oh, shoot, there are a lot of people who want to come here. We need housing, modern housing, for them. We need childcare,'” Jones said. “We’ve got to have housing, got to have childcare, got to have transportation. What does that look like?”

He added that potential climate migration to the North Country putting further strain on the housing stock is a “possibility,” but his attention is on “the issues we’re having right now” with regards to housing.

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STRs

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Short-term vacation rentals, which have proliferated in the North Country in the past decade and eaten into the availability of long-term housing, are negatively affecting the housing crisis, Jones said.

“The biggest complaints I’m hearing from the towns — not so much now, I think the trend’s slowing down a little bit — but when they do get a good piece of property on (sale), they get somebody that buys it sight unseen and we have this STR, short-term rental,” Jones said. “I personally don’t know how you stop that, but I do know some of the steps we’re taking are going to push back on that.

“The state tackled that a little bit this year as far as doing the state (STR) registry and the, you know, putting everybody on a level playing field as far as paying sales tax and the occupancy tax. So, we’re working on it, but it is certainly a major issue here,” he added.

The STR bill, currently awaiting Hochul’s signature to pass into law, creates a statewide registry of STRs, allowing municipalities to track how many STRs are operating in their area. It would also allow sales and occupancy taxes to be collected on STR stays. Essex County already collects occupancy taxes on STR stays.

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Camp Gabriels Amendment

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Jones’ “biggest frustration” with the Assembly’s last session was its failure to pass an amendment allowing abandoned prisons in the Adirondack Park like Camp Gabriels in Brighton to be sold. A constitutional amendment must be passed to remove Adirondack prisons from the Forest Preserve before they can be sold, and amendments require passage by both state houses in two successive legislative sessions before they can be presented to voters on a ballot. The amendment regarding Camp Gabriels passed the state Senate in May but the Assembly failed to pass it before its session ended.

“(It’s) always frustrations when you’re dealing in Albany. You want to see your legislation get through. I think probably the biggest frustration was, we couldn’t get to an agreement with the amendments,” he said. “Everybody has a great idea on paper, and when you try to get it through committees or get it through certain people, there’s always issues that arise.”

The Senate will need to pass the amendment again in its next session, restarting the process for a sixth time. Once the Assembly also passes it in the same session, both houses will need to pass the amendment again in a second consecutive session before the amendment goes before Hochul and voters.

Jones, a former corrections officer, has been leading the fight to pass the prison amendments since he was elected in 2016.

“I think we just ran out of time, honestly, to get (other Adirondack prisons) negotiated in,” he said. “But, we’ll try again. I’ll try again.”

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Prison closures

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Five state prisons are set to close as a result of the 2024 Public Protection and General Government Bill, part of the 2024-25 state budget. The facilities which are on the chopping block have not been announced, but when they are, they’ll have 90 days’ notice of their closure rather than the legally-mandated year’s notice.

Jones said he has little information on the impending prison closures.

“Very soon, I think we’re coming with an announcement,” he said. “I don’t know how many; I don’t know where; I don’t know when.”

Jones, along with state Sen. Dan Stec, R-Queensbury, and Assemblymen Matt Simpson, R-Horicon, voted against the bill. Local leaders — North Elba town Supervisor Derek Doty, St. Armand town Supervisor Davina Thurston, Harrietstown town Supervisor Jordanna Mallach and Saranac Lake village Mayor Jimmy Williams — also voiced opposition to a possible closure of Adirondack Correctional Facility earlier this year, writing a letter to Hochul.

The combination of the possible prison closures and the failure to pass the prison amendment is another “frustration,” Jones said.

“I guess the frustration is, first of all, the prison closures. The jobs, everything, I certainly understand that. I was in it for 20 years of my life. But we’re not doing anything with the properties after this is done,” he said. “Those buildings are literally just falling into the ground. I certainly understand the environmental concerns, but to me, just letting old, dilapidated buildings fall into the ground is not very good for our environment, either.”

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First responders

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A little-mentioned topic that he wants to hear more people discussing, Jones said, is the aging and shrinking population of volunteer organizations that hold the North Country’s small communities together, such as volunteer fire departments, EMS and Rotary clubs.

“We’re getting a lot of services for a very little investment right now,” Jones said. “If you lose them, then you have to go to a paid staff. … I guarantee you, once — or if we ever do — lose those services, then your average person is going to pay attention to it. Because, you know what? Their taxes are going to go up.

“That’s usually when you get people’s attention, when it hits their pocketbook,” Jones added.

He said that communities should start paying attention to this issue now to avoid a future hit to their bank accounts — recruiting younger volunteers to take over and creating incentives for young volunteers.

“It’s a small investment with a big ROI, return on investment,” he said.

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SAFE Act

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Jones co-sponsored the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) For Kids Act in the Assembly this spring, which Hochul signed into law on June 20. The act requires social media companies to restrict their addictive algorithmic feeds for users under 18 and also prohibits the sites from collecting, using, sharing or selling the personal data of minors except under specific exceptional circumstances.

The SAFE Act addresses concerns of parents across the state, Jones said, as well as his colleagues in the Assembly.

“I’m a parent of an 11-year-old and I think … social media has really changed the game in every aspect of our lives,” Jones said. “We’re seeing a lot of concerns with children, pre-teens, teens, even younger than that, getting onto these feeds and getting trapped.”

While some opponents of social media regulation argue it’s a parent’s job to regulate a child’s social media usage, not the government’s, Jones said families and the government need to work together on the issue.

“We definitely need parents involved in it more, but it’s pretty hard for a parent to regulate once your child leaves the house for the day,” he said. “My 11-year-old daughter, I am sure, and I regulate the best I can, I’m sure she can find a lot more stuff in this little phone than I can.”

He added that social media use can be “unhealthy” for kids and adults alike.

“I know there’s safety concerns. Parents want to be in touch (with their children),” he said. “But, I think what we’re seeing is, the addictiveness of some of these feeds and, really, in talking to people, that the harm it can do to our children, our pre-teens, our teens — I think it’s worth us trying to do something.”

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Campaigning

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Social media has affected the way politicians campaign, govern and behave, too, Jones said.

“In my line of business, (social media) can be unhealthy, too. We want to talk about political violence and the rhetoric out there — it’s changed the trajectory of politics, I think, forever,” he said.

Jones added he tries to keep things light and informative on his social media pages and stay away from political fights, though it is sometimes tempting.

“I think when we post something, it’s usually mostly positive, mostly just getting information out to people, and that’s what we try to do. This whole political game of trying to one-up, just to say the most ridiculous things one day to one-up whoever your opposition is, it’s really just gotten out of hand,” he said. “It’s tempting at times to get into the mud, but I think, through eight, nine campaigns now, we’ve never gone there and I don’t envision us going there, either.

“Plus, it just takes too much energy, honestly,” Jones added. “I don’t know how these people go on Twitter or Facebook every day and just berate people. It’s not productive, either.”