This hearing was added to the schedule at a late date after some members of LATFOR correctly noted that the region was being unfairly excluded from the public hearing process. With only 2.55% of New York’s population, the North Country region (defined here as Jefferson, Lewis, St. Lawrence, Franklin, Hamilton, Clinton, Essex, Warren, and Northern Herkimer Counties) is often overlooked by elected official and media from the rest of the state.
Dominated by the rugged mountain geography of Adirondack State Park, the region is by any measure the most rural and least developed in New York State. With the exception of the areas around the small cities of Glens Falls, Watertown, Potsdam, Massena, Malone, and Plattsburgh, the North Country has a population density of less than 100 residents per square mile. Much of the central Adirondack area is wilderness with no permanent residents at all.
Unlike much of the rest of upstate New York, the North Country’s population grew from 482,867 in 2000 to 491,962 in 2010. Looking at the map of population change, it appears that growth took place in perimeter along Lake Ontario, the St Lawrence River, Lake Champlain, and the southeast corner near Glens Falls, while losses took place mostly in the Adirondack interior.
Looking at socio-economic demographics, median household incomes in the North Country are relatively uniform in the middle-class $40,000 to $75,000 range. Incomes near small cities and in certain parts of Essex, St. Lawrence, and Franklin County often fall into the lower $25,000 to $40,000 range.
The North Country is distinct from the rest of New York State in its lack of population of communities of color and immigrants. According to Census 2010 data, 91% of the voting age population of the North Country is non-Hispanic white. However, this percentage rises if the region’s prison population is removed from the count.
13,243 incarcerated people were counted amongst twelve North Country state prisons in the 2010 Census, with the majority from the large facilities in Clinton and Franklin Counties (Clinton Correctional Facility, Bare Hill Correctional Facility, Franklin Correctional Facility).
Last year, the New York State legislature passed Chapter 57, Part XX of the Laws of 2010, ending the practice of prison-based gerrymandering in which incarcerated people are counted at the location of their incarceration. For the redistricting of the State Senate and State Assembly, incarcerated people will instead be counted at their last known place of residence.
As a result these 13,243 incarcerated people will no longer be counted as residents of the North Country. However, If we consider the population growth that has taken place since 2000, a gain of 9,904 residents, the North Country will only lose 3,339 residents, or 0.7%, compared to the last redistricting. The reenumerating of incarcerated people to their home communities instead of their prisons will not have a major effect on redistricting in the North Country, yet State Senator Betty Little (District 45-R) remains the lead plaintiff on a suit currently challenging the law in court.
Senator Little’s current district has a large majority of the North Country’s prison population. But it would not be difficult to make minor adjustments to pick up additional population and still have a district that covers the eastern half of the North Country.
The story is the same in the State Assembly where it is not challenging to make adjustments to Districts 113 (Sayward-R) and 114 (Duprey-R) in order to compensate for the loss of incarcerated people. The North Country will maintain its current four Assembly seats.
Chapter 57, Part XX of the Laws of 2010 only covers state-level redistricting and will have no effect on Congressional apportionment. But like all of New York’s congressional districts, the North Country seats will have to grow to fit the new 2010 district populations of 717,707.
The North Country is current divided between three Congressional districts.
District 20 (Gibson-R) forms an “L” shape and extends all the way from the Catskills and Hudson River Valley into the eastern portion of the North Country.
District 23 (Owens-D) occupies most of the North Country but extends to the south at Fulton County and far to the south across Oneida Lake into the whole of Madison County.
District 24 (Hanna-R) extends up from the Finger Lakes region into Herkimer County.
There is no basis in demographic data or communities of interest for any of these district shapes. As we have advocated in previous testimonies and blogs, we believe that the Congressional districts in Upstate New York should be drawn on a regional basis. Instead of two districts extending into the North Country from very distinct regions to the south, and a North Country-based district extending all the way into the completely unrelated Madison County, it is possible to draw a single district for the whole of the North Country region.
Assemblymember Ken Blankenbush (R), who represents District 122 in the western portion of the North Country, has argued at previous LATFOR hearings that the North Country region is a very distinct community with different interests and priorities than the regions to the south. Our analysis supports Assemblymember Blankenbush’s views and we believe that a unified North Country region Congressional district should be drawn.
