To the Editor:

I am writing in response to Kevin Acres’ letter posted on 10/20/2026 on the NCN website. Kevin is a former legislator who believes that his opinion needs to be shared with all and likes to look to the past with rose colored glasses, praising his political party while showing a bias overall. Let’s dig into his letter.

Kevin speaks about how Iran wants Americans to vote democratic. How does Kevin know this and where was this posted? This is lazy and is the right wing attempt to say that Democratic Party is unamerican while republicans side with Putin and North Korea. It’s fun because both sides can do this, but one side is factual. Kevin appears to not be on the factual side. 

Kevin speaks of the democratic run legislature that was voted in in 2006 and all the issues he believes were the Democratic led legislature’s fault. Between 2006-2008, there was a Great Recession that destroyed the economics of our nation and the world due to Republican policies and schemes on a national level. Our area of the state is still reeling from that time with the major loss of manufacturing and jobs. 

Kevin then touts Republican actions and says how they have fixed issues. Here’s the rub: Kevin forgets to mention that federal money from the COVID pandemic were received and used as they saw fit. Kevin speaks about cutting taxes but doing better financially. This happened by cutting services our area desperately needs such as mental health and chemical dependency services and by privatization of all medical services in the area. The current legislators are now looking at getting a pay raise and gave the current county administrator a pay raise of over 20%, making her the highest paid county administrator in the state. The economically poorest and lowest populated county pays one person the high salary for their position across the entire state. 

On top of that, the legislature has wasted time by following right wing performative politics and terrible ideas. Money is funneled away from services towards the creation of new structures that are not necessary and implementation of a variety of not-needed procedures and trainings that cost money. 

The legislature openly rebuked the idea that the county was a sanctuary county, leading to a formal writ stating that St. Lawrence County was not a sanctuary county. This was done in response to a right wing think tank whose members include anti-semites and white nationalists on their board. The legislature’s knee jerk reaction wasted time and money, and this is not the only time this has happened.  

Kevin likes to tout these “accomplishments” without context when in reality he is speaking out of both sides. 

I’m not going to tell you who to vote for. But I encourage you to become educated regarding what is being done with your tax dollars and what this money is helping and what it is hindering. 

Jeffry Wilson
Massena