Upstate New York: A New Way Of Thinking

By State Sen. David Valesky

Upstate New York, like any other region of the state or nation, has many inherent strengths, including available land and natural resources, geographic proximity to markets, a strong manufacturing base and skilled workforce, and a high concentration of colleges, universities and research centers.

Yet, despite these strengths, Upstate New Yorkers have watched for decades as our plants closed, our children moved away and our Main Streets emptied. There is no doubt, Upstate New York has the potential to be the economic powerhouse it was a generation ago. To do this, we need to implement a new way of thinking to leverage our strengths to compete in the 21st-century economy.

I believe the strategy for real economic development and revitalization in Upstate New York is threefold. First, we must refocus on building our cities and villages to make them economic engines again. Second, we must retool existing and underused manufacturing facilities and retrain our skilled workforce for the jobs of the new economy. And, third, we must promote businesses and industries that can and will thrive in Upstate New York, including specialty manufacturing, high-tech, defense and medical technology, green technology, financial services and food processing.

This year, despite the ongoing national economic crisis, we have taken several steps forward in implementing this strategy. For example, two bills I sponsored in the Senate have the potential to spur economic development in our upstate cities and villages, to reignite economic activity on our Main Streets, and to bring people and businesses back to our communities. The state’s new Historic Rehabilitation Tax Credit will give incentives for the reuse of our large stock of historic properties across the region. Now, developers who may have looked elsewhere due to lack of financing will have new motivation to invest in Upstate New York. In addition, the successful Main Street program, which provides technical and financial assistance for bricks-and-mortar projects in urban, suburban and rural downtowns, was strengthened through legislation. The program has already invested $48 million dollars in 130-plus communities across New York, including many in Upstate New York.

We are also seeing success in efforts to bring new businesses to Upstate New York, by leveraging our strengths in green technology and working to create a more business-friendly climate. A notable example is REVA, an electric car company that chose to locate its manufacturing plant, and nearly 200 jobs, in Central New York, over possible locations in Michigan and Kentucky. One of the factors that weighed heavily in our favor was the availability of a skilled workforce.

We have much left to do to restore Upstate New York to its former glory. But we are making important strides through legislation, smart investment and leveraging our regional assets. And, more importantly, we are seeing the beginnings of a paradigm shift in how we approach economic development—a shift that will change the underpinnings of the entire upstate economy, reverse the population loss and encourage smarter growth patterns that will decrease the strain on property taxpayers. I am hopeful that as we continue down this new path, we will begin to see signs that we have finally ended the decades-long trends, and we again see businesses growing here, young people staying here, and Main Streets thriving here.

David Valesky is a Democrat representing parts of Onondaga, Oneida, Madison and Cayuga counties, and is Vice President Pro-Tempore of the State Senate.

Upstate New York Central To Senate Agenda, State Economy

By State Sen. Darrel Aubertine

If New York State is to emerge from this fiscal crisis stronger and grow our economy, Upstate New York and its important industries must be at the forefront of what we do. Our agenda must include a focus on agriculture, improving our economic development efforts and addressing high property taxes through a circuit breaker and property tax cap.

Agriculture remains our number-one industry. Farms generate wealth and support hundreds of thousands of jobs, including many in urban areas. However, farmers are struggling. The dairy crisis is impacting not only dairy producers, but all types of farms, agribusinesses and our communities. We must take bold steps to improve the farmer’s bottom line and hold back cumbersome and costly regulations, including farm labor legislation that would cripple the industry, hurting farmers and farm workers alike.

Beyond agriculture, our economic development programs such as the Empire Zone program should be made more efficient, to create more jobs, not just shift jobs from one part of the state to another for tax benefits. Companies should also not be allowed to keep benefits if they send jobs out of the state or worse, out of the country. But while we tighten the loopholes in these programs, we also need to make it easier and simpler for businesses to use them to create jobs and invest in our communities.

Streamlining economic development must also involve our low-cost power programs, which use the resources of the New York Power Authority to create and sustain hundreds of thousands of jobs statewide. Many programs are renewed year after year, including Power for Jobs, but a long-term approach will give employers the certainty they need. Businesses utilizing these benefits and economic developers have also indicated that they would like the nine different programs to be centralized, easier to access and possibly even extended to university-based business incubators to create more jobs.

Over the past two months, I have been around the state from Montauk to Massena, Eden Valley to Cobleskill, collecting input through tours of farms and businesses, roundtable discussions and public hearings on both agriculture and our low-cost power programs. As a state legislator, I believe it is important to collect input before crafting legislation, rather than just writing a law, passing it, and then asking those impacted by the legislation to deal with it.

As we move forward to rebuild our state economy and emerge from this fiscal crisis, Upstate New York must be the centerpiece of our economic development efforts. The crash on Wall Street demonstrated that the Upstate economy is critically important to the health of our state’s economy as a whole. If Upstate had been a priority over the past 40 years, we would not face the drastic cuts and difficult decisions we face now with declining revenues.

I am working with my downstate colleagues to emphasize this reality. Senate President Malcolm Smith and Conference Leader John Sampson recently joined the Senate Majority’s Upstate Caucus for a summit in Syracuse to talk with state economic development officials, representatives from the agriculture and tourism industries, and local business leaders. After a series of productive meetings, it was clear that our message resonated with my colleagues, both of whom indicated publicly that they intend for issues important to Upstate New York to drive the agenda for the Senate.

Darrel Aubertine, a Democrat representing Oswego, Jefferson and parts of St. Lawrence counties, is chair of the Senate Majority’s Upstate Caucus, the Senate Agriculture Committee and the Legislative Commission on Rural Resources.

Upstate Or Downstate, We’re All In This Together

By State Sen. Tom Libous

As a lifelong resident of Broome County, I’ve watched the quality of life in Upstate change in many different ways for many different reasons. As a state legislator, I take my ability to impact the quality of life of my constituents very seriously.

Here in Upstate New York, we have a lot going for us. We’re the major supplier to all of New York State of vital resources like food, water and energy.

Agriculture is the number-one industry in many upstate counties. We supply our downstate neighbors with crisp apples, sweet maple syrup and rich dairy products.

A big part of maintaining our quality of life upstate is making life easier for hardworking farmers that put fresh, local food on our tables. When they’re taxed excessively, forced to follow very restrictive labor standards or required to pay more to transport their crops, we pay more, too. And we’re paying more for less quality, less availability. Then our economy suffers. As a legislator, I want to continue doing everything I can to make sure our upstate farmlands remain great resources. Their successes and failures reach us all.

While our future relies heavily on a prosperous agriculture industry, Upstate New York stands to gain significantly from safe natural gas drilling as well. Many have described gas drilling upstate as a “bonanza” and even “the opportunity of a lifetime.” But we’re not going to enter into this opportunity lightly. We’re going to make sure natural gas drilling is done safely. We’re learning from our neighbors in Pennsylvania. We know that downstate depends on our water supply, just as they do our food supply, and we need to carefully protect it for their safety as well as our own.

But it’s been hard to watch businesses leave Broome and Tioga counties for the more business-friendly pastures of Pennsylvania, which borders those two counties in my Senate District. Many of my constituents have watched Pennsylvania prosper from natural gas drilling but fear it won’t happen here because of Albany’s slow movement.

It’s been unsettling to see agriculture attacked by downstate legislators who won’t try to understand the impact of their actions in an area they’re not familiar with. We’ve all said “goodbye” to friends who’ve moved out of state for less tax-crushing states—and they have plenty to choose from.

Sure, the overall economy has been tough to handle. But New York State hasn’t extended a helping hand to these farms, businesses or families. Instead, it rubbed salt in their wounds with a state budget that raised their utility bills with more taxes, increased their property taxes and took away Empire Zone benefits.

Back in April, I fought to stop all of these measures. I debated and proposed amendments. I voted “No” on the budget that broke tax records and raised spending by $13 billion in the middle of the worst recession in 70 years. These measures took some pretty serious swipes at farming, our number-one industry. And the effects haven’t gone unnoticed by our farmers and our families buying their products.

Ultimately, Upstate has tons of potential. There’s no way that can deteriorate if we have support from the whole state. Upstate will thrive if we all realize that our villages, towns, counties, both upstate and downstate, don’t operate independently of one another. If we all go to work every day with that in mind, we’ll take full advantage of current opportunities and the many opportunities on the horizon.

Tom Libous, a Republican representing Binghamton, is the Senate Deputy Minority Leader.