Section 847-A. Statement of legislative findings and purpose

The
  legislature hereby finds that for approximately twenty-five  years,  the
  Tug  Hill  commission  has  provided  essential  planning  and technical
  services to the sixty-two local governments  and  to  residents  in  the
  twenty-one hundred square mile Tug Hill region.
    The  legislature  further  finds that, lying between Lake Ontario, the
  Black River and Oneida Lake, is a  region  of  approximately  twenty-one
  hundred  square miles that encompasses towns and villages scattered in a
  vast acreage of forest and farm land. The core of the region encompasses
  more than eight hundred square miles  of  remote  forest  land  and  the
  headwaters  of  several major rivers, with much of the area inaccessible
  by public road. These lands and waters are important to the state of New
  York as municipal water supply, as wildlife and plant  habitat,  as  key
  resources  supporting  forest  industry, farming, recreation and tourism
  and traditional land uses such as hunting and fishing. State  assistance
  through  the  Tug Hill commission to help Tug Hill local governments and
  organizations is merited and needed because of the importance  of  these
  resources to the state, and because of the small population and relative
  poverty of the region.
    The legislature further finds that the Tug Hill commission, originally
  established  in  nineteen  hundred  seventy-two  as  a  temporary  state
  commission,  has  studied  the  Tug  Hill  region,  provided   technical
  assistance  to  the  region's  local  governments  and  reported  to the
  governor and legislature regarding the conservation and  development  of
  the  Tug  Hill  region. The purpose of the commission is to enable local
  governments, private organizations, and individuals to shape the  future
  of  the  Tug  Hill  region, and to demonstrate and communicate ways that
  this can be done by other rural areas. Commission  programs  are  geared
  toward  the  conservation and productive use of the natural resources of
  the region, strengthening of the long-term economy, employment, cultural
  and  social  resources,  and  the  general  well-being  of   the   rural
  communities.  The  commission  has  facilitated local action as the most
  enduring and cost-effective method of retaining  the  rural  and  remote
  character  of this land, and of retaining the independent way of life of
  its people and their economy.
    The legislature finds that the  Tug  Hill  commission's  track  record
  demonstrates its capability for working together with towns and villages
  for   appropriate   community  and  economic  development  and  resource
  protection. Its continuation will enable municipalities to perform their
  basic local government functions.
    It is the purpose  of  this  article  to  insure  continued  municipal
  assistance,  conservation, preservation and development in the region by
  continuing the Tug Hill  commission,  in  order  to  serve  those  local
  government and regional needs, now and in the future.