During what Dutchess County Executive Mark Molinaro described as the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression, the official Hudson Valley survival strategy boils down to one word: regionalism.
It was not always thus.
In 2002, Regionalism and Realism, a book about local governance in the New York City metropolitan region, was named an outstanding academic title by Choice magazine. Co-author Dr. Gerald Benjamin, former Ulster County legislator and SUNY New Paltz dean at the time, was one of a very few voices asserting that only by working together as a region could governments cope with rising costs, dropping revenues and the pressure to pay for state-mandated programs.
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