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ELIZABETHTOWN - A report Essex County commissioned on the impact of Moriah Shock Incarceration Correctional Facility's closing paints a picture of an aging, impoverished county dependent on government employment that would be absolutely devastated by the loss of 143 jobs the closure could cause.

According to estimates prepared by Colin Read, who holds a Ph.D in regional economics, closing Moriah Shock would result in "direct, indirect and induced labor income losses" of $7.93 million, or about 1.2 percent of the county's total labor income, and the county's unemployment rate would jump from 10.3 percent to 11.1 percent.

Read said the employment loss could result in a $23 million loss of housing value countywide in a total housing stock worth $5.3 billion, and that closing the camp would lead to a $3.4 million loss of state and local tax revenue and $2.2 million loss of federal tax revenue, which "rivals the $6,910,698 budget for the" facility, Read wrote.

County Manager Dan Palmer, Board of Supervisors Chairman Randy Douglas of Jay and Moriah Supervisor Tom Scozzafava visited Albany Tuesday to present the report to officials. It was prepared by the Save Moriah Task Force, made up of local officials and department heads and is 23 pages long, plus a 12-page appendix from Read.

Read, a professor at SUNY Plattsburgh, used software called IMPLAN 3.0 to come up with the estimates. The program uses formulas to estimate how much much an institution pumps into the local community through purchases and labor income, the indirect amount of spending and jobs created by those who supply the operation and the induced spending that comes from local workers and suppliers spending their money locally.

Department of Correctional Services spokesman Erik Kriss said in a late February interview that Commissioner Brian Fischer made his decision based on what made sense for the entire system: The state's four shock camps are only 74 percent full, and Moriah is by far the most distant camp from Lakeview, on Lake Erie, where the state's shock inmates are processed before being sent to other camps.

"Nobody's going to be happy ... if a prison in their community is targeted for closure," Kriss said. "Obviously, it provides some economic stimulus to the community, but the commissioner looked at the total picture in terms of operating the system and what made the most sense from an efficiency standpoint to operate the system in a more economical way."

DOCS has said that it can provide space for all the inmates who qualify for shock with three camps instead of four, even though the criteria for shock eligibility was expanded last year. The report argues that the state should wait longer to see what effects last year's changes in the Rockefeller Drug Laws has before closing the camp.

Gov. David Paterson has proposed closing Moriah Shock and three other prisons as part of his 2010-2011 budget. The state says these closures would save $7 million in 2010-11 and $52 million in 2011-12. County officials have been lobbying state and federal officials hard to keep the facility open since the state's plans were announced, and have sounded guardedly optimistic in recent weeks, saying that if any of the four prisons slated for closure is kept open, it will be Moriah.

The first section of the report, which was primarily written by Palmer and approved by the Task Force, says the county, due to its low population, comparatively low income and the constraints that come with being in the Adirondack Park, is ill equipped to absorb the loss of 102 jobs the facility provides directly plus 41 more through taking away its economic impact.

Almost 30 percent of the county's 38,851 population is receiving some kind of public assistance according to the report, and median income is $43,132 yearly, about 24 percent below the statewide average. Over 30 percent of Essex County residents work in the public sector, not including public education, and the number jumps to 44 percent in neighboring Franklin County.

The state has said that none of the corrections officers will be laid off but will be allowed to transfer to other facilities, and it will try to make the same accommodation for civilian employees. However, the report argues that "the nearest location that some of the employee(s) may be eligible to transfer to is more than 65 miles one way from Moriah. The reality is the employees that transfer will move, the others will lose their jobs and the effect will be that Essex County will lose 102 jobs."

The bulk of the state tax revenue loss, about $948,000, would be in income taxes, with an $800,000 loss for localities in property taxes and a $670,000 loss in sales tax revenue, which is divided between the state and the county. In addition to this, though, Read wrote that if housing prices fall 1.43 percent as a result of the job loss, "a temporary drop in local tax revenue of $346,962 may occur until tax levies necessarily rise to account for property value declines."

Moriah inmates performed 94,136 hours of community service in 2009 - more than one-third of it for the state Department of Environmental Conservation, work the state will have to either not do or supplement elsewhere. In previous years, inmates have been "the front line labor crews" in helping the area respond to natural disasters, most recently April 2007 snowstorms. Without the inmates, the report says, the state and federal governments will have to pay more for disaster relief. Read estimated the inmates' community service is worth about $1.2 million yearly, using the salary that would otherwise be paid a groundskeeper to estimate.

As well as the community services provided by the inmates, the report argues that the communities the COs reside in will lose a lot if they leave, listing 45 of them who serve as volunteer firefighters or on rescue squads, volunteer at their churches and local schools, serve on town boards and do other things for the communities.

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Contact Nathan Brown at 891-2600 ext. 26 or nbrown@adirondackdailyenterprise.com.