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Governor’s veto of bill to hurt small campground owners, says Assemblywoman Russell

Posted 8/20/11

The governor’s veto of a bill relieving small campgrounds of a requirement to maintain their own dumping stations will hurt small businesses, the bill’s Assembly sponsor said. 118th “River” …

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Governor’s veto of bill to hurt small campground owners, says Assemblywoman Russell

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The governor’s veto of a bill relieving small campgrounds of a requirement to maintain their own dumping stations will hurt small businesses, the bill’s Assembly sponsor said.

118th “River” District Assemblywoman Addie Russell says “The vetoing of this legislation, which helps consumers and businesses alike, is disappointing and contrary to goal of easing unnecessarily burdensome regulation on our small businesses so that our economy and business climate can improve.”

Russell, a Democrat from Theresa, says that the aim of the bill was to “ease regulations on small campground businesses by providing a balanced alternative to installing a costly chemical toilet dump station. In addition, my bill provided revenue to New York State Parks by directing campers at these small private campgrounds that are within 30 miles of a state park to go there to dump their waste water and pay the daily park rate.”

Gov. Cuomo said that an existing waiver process for campgrounds would suffice.

“Requiring that campgrounds go through an arduous process to obtain a waiver is only temporary and is far more business-unfriendly than what my bill would have allowed. Further, the waiver process is applied differently across the state, some regions being extremely inflexible and unwilling to provide a waiver all together.

“It is also my understanding that the Department of Health was not supportive of the bill, citing concerns that people would choose to just dump their waste water illegally if no on-site waste water system is in place. It shocks me that the DOH has such a low regard for our community members. I believe they should be embracing solutions like this one that the state Assembly and Senate both supported. I will be consulting with the Chair of the Assembly Health Committee about the possibility of holding hearings to examine the overregulation by the DOH,” Russell said.