 In 2008, two New York state senators supported a bill that would establish a $150,000 blue-ribbon panel to look at the competition state-run recreational facilities posed to privately owned operations.David Donaldson, the Ulster County Legislature chairman, saw the bill as a direct attack on nearby state-owned Belleayre Ski Center in Ulster County, and connected the operators of Windham and Hunter Mountains to the effort to "cripple" Belleayre.The operators of the two privately run mountains had previously complained that as a mountain partially funded by taxpayers, Belleayre was taking business away from Windham and Hunter because it did not have to worry about making a profit.