Million Dollar Sweep of Trail Funds

04/25/08

$1 million was transferred FROM the Snowmobile Trail Development and Management Account. NYYSA is organizing to get the funds returned.

From Lost Trail Club - You can download copies of these letter here.

Click on the appropriate link to download a copy of the letter in Word format (.doc)
Letter to Governor ----Letter to Senator ----Letter to Assembly Rep

From NYSSA
A call for Action from NYSSA and your new President Mike Fischer:
Please Forward this to Your Members

You already are painfully aware that the Budget Director has swept
$1,000,000.00 from the Snowmobile Trail fund. Through our lobbyists in Albany,
we were able to find out what had happened.

On March 7th, acting in accordance with Section 15 of Part T of Chapter 57 of
the Laws of 2007, the Director of the Budget directed the State Comptroller’s
office to transfer $100 million in available fund balances in Miscellaneous
Special Revenue accounts to the state’s General Fund. The decision to
transfer these funds was based on the state’s worsening financial condition,
the pending Executive Budget (then under review by the Legislature), and an
analysis of the projected cash flows for each account. Over 50 different
Special Revenue accounts were affected, across many different agencies and
programs. As part of this transfer of these funds, $1 million was transferred
from the Snowmobile Trail Development and Management Account (339-41). While
Parks strongly recommended to the Division of the Budget that this action not
be taken, this transfer was made pursuant to the law and within the authority
of the state Budget Director.

As President of NYSSA, I have sent a letter to the Governor strongly opposing
this sweep of the $1 million from the trail fund and asked him to restore
these funds. I also have already called upon all our club presidents and asked
them to send letters to their respective Senators and Assemblymen. We at NYSSA
have been working with our lobbyists to take whatever action necessary to
oppose this unwarranted sweep of our money from the trail fund and to reach out
to the Legislature and ask for their help to correct this intolerable situation.

I am calling on all of you, our club members and your families, to send a
letter to the Governor, and to your respective Senator and Assemblyman asking
their help in getting our $1 million restored to the Snowmobile Trail Fund. We
are providing all of you with the attached model letters in order to ensure a
clear, consistent, and resolute message. Please use the attached Governor,
Senate and Assembly model letters.

We ask that you fax, email or mail your letters to the Governor and your
respective Senator and Assemblyman as soon as possible. We must act quickly to
let them know about our opposition to this unwarranted action by the Budget
Director. It is preferable if you would fax or email the letters.

You can fax the Governor at: (518) 474-1513 or email him by going to this
address http://161.11.121.121/govemail. Fill out the required information
then copy and paste your letter into the box marked Your Comments. If you
cannot fax or email then mail you letter to the Governor by using the address
provided on the model letter.

For the Senate and Assembly, you can get the fax numbers or emails by going to
the Senate and Assembly sites: (Copy and Paste Link into your Browser)
http://www.senate.state.ny.us/senatehomepage.nsf/senators?OpenForm;
http://assembly.state.ny.us/mem/.
In addition to the fax numbers or emails, you can use these sites to determine
who your Senator or Assemblyman is by using the zip code look-up device.

Please act quickly and send your letters by fax, email or mail. Thanks for
your attention to this most pressing issue facing NYSSA and the clubs.