This year’s adopted state budget saw a $12-million increase in funding for the Belleayre ski center on the Ulster County-Delaware County border. Operated by the Adirondacks-oriented Olympic Regional Development Authority (ORDA), the state-owned ski center is a major employer in the Catskills, with 40 full-time employees and 330 seasonal or part-time workers. It provides winter employment for local people in the low-tourism winter months.
State senator Michelle Hinchey helped bring equity to the spending of capital funds by ORDA, which took over Belleayre from the DEC in 2012. Hinchey said in a press release that an additional $12.6 million for Belleayre that she had obtained put its capital spending in an equitable position in regard to its Adirondacks counterparts.
Belleayre visitation – an elusive metric – increased from 179,006 in 2021-2022 to 237,825 in 2022-2023. ORDA, the only governmental owner of ski slopes in the nation, justifies its existence in terms of regional economic impact rather than its own revenues.
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