2010 Buffalo Niagara Regional Agenda Unveiled

This afternoon, the Partnership, in collaboration with Erie and Niagara Counties and the cities of Buffalo and Niagara Falls, rolled out the Buffalo Niagara 2010 Regional Agenda, a list of the region's top economic development priorities. Each year, the Regional Agenda (this is the 9th) becomes the roadmap for the Partnership's advocacy efforts related to economic development.



It was Senator Hillary Clinton who, upon taking office, visited the Buffalo Niagara region and addressed the "nothing every gets done around here" mentality, pointing out that the region's haphazard approach to seeking federal and state dollars was a big part of the problem. She urged the Buffalo Niagara regional stakeholders to get on the same page. The Partnership offered to organize the effort, and nine years later, we're still on the job. The results speak for themselves at how effective collaboration is:

• The growth of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus;


• The saving and reinvestment in the Niagara Falls Air Base;


• The development and construction of downtown Buffalo's Federal Courthouse;


• Delay of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) to allow NYS to implement Enhanced Drivers' Licenses as an accepted alternative to passports for CanAm border crossings.

Each of these items was a focus in the annual Regional Agenda - agreed upon by our economic development partners as having tremendous economic impact possibilities. As we move forward, we're identified the UB2020 program as the region's top priority, and quite possibly the biggest economic development undertaking in our history.



Now the real work begins, as the Regional Agenda partners begin to lobby our state and federal delegations in support of these projects and policy changes.

IDA "agreement" the worst we've seen yet

This is a great quote from today's New York Times article on state IDA "reform":

“Governor Paterson is working to achieve I.D.A. reform that will create jobs,
stimulate the economy and allow long-stalled civic facility projects to move
forward,” said Peter E. Kauffmann, the governor’s communications director.

Well, we've gotten advance notice of the proposed legislation the article mentions, and I can assure you, it will not create jobs or stimulate the economy. The deal - negotiated between the governor's office and organized labor - includes prevailing and living wage mandates (with living wage mandates up to 30% higher than the accepted "living wage" in the Buffalo Niagara region) that comprehensively negate the importance of the IDA incentives. For state facilities such as colleges or universities receiving IDA benefits, wage mandates are already in effect - but the proposed parameters, and increased costs that will result from them, the governor/labor proposal will kill the IDAs' value to the private sector.

Here's an interesting question - if you're looking to stimulate economic development in New York State, why would you not have the state's economic development entities at the table? How can you possibly get a clear picture of what's needed for job creation in the state while shutting the private sector (the job creators) out of the room? Without getting into a debate about the merits of unions, it's understood that organized labor does not create jobs. Sure, labor tinkers with jobs that are already created (they would say to make them better jobs), but if you're looking for sheer creation of new job opportunities for New York's workforce, you're barking up the wrong tree... Particularly if labor's the only ones with whom you're deliberating. The results can't be good because labor doesn't understand job creation. Why? It's not the business they're in. The conversation needs to be had with those for whom job creation is their daily focus - that's the only way you're going to get a worthwhile economic development program.

This attitude toward economic development is nothing new in Albany, of course - for years we've wondered why the IDA legislation is sitting in Assemblyman Hoyt's Local Governments Committee rather than Assemblyman Schimminger's Economic Development Committee when it involves an economic development program! It paints an important picture of Albany's attitude toward economic development... That it takes a back seat to special interests' priorities.

The fervor is already reaching fever pitch at 10:00 this morning - business groups from around the state are coalescing in opposition to this proposal. What's on the table is particularly onerous for Upstate, so we will once again be calling on our "Upstate 5" State Senate majority members to be the voice of reason here and defend Upstate economic development from the pain that this proposal would inflict.

More to come...

How can you talk about taxes at a time like this?

Can you imagine that the negotiations in Albany taking place right now are including discussion about a $1 billion increase in taxes on health insurance? After passing a ridiculous state budget in April that increased spending by over $10 billion on the backs of taxpayers (and that has left the state with a $4.1 billion budget deficit), they have the audacity to even mention more taxes - much less implement them.

Here you have the federal government working feverishly on health care reform (which, unfortunately, has not yet addressed the spiraling cost of health care) trying to get as much of the population insured as possible, and New York State looking at making health insurance unaffordable. Remember, they already hit taxpayers with $600 million in health care assessments (taxes) in February's Deficit Reduction Package. Now, apparently, they're back for more.

Over the weekend, the NYS Senate Upstate Caucus issued a strongly-worded press release about protecting Upstate taxpayers. This spring, none of the "Upstate 5" stood against the downstate Senate leadership to oppose the ill-advised and destructive budget. Remember, there's a slim, one-vote majority in the State Senate, and it would take only one to derail tax increases and send the negotations back into the room (with the "three men"). We will be calling on the Upstate 5 to do what they say - and protect Upstate taxpayers from this $1 billion tax on health insurance.

You can weigh in, as well. Visit the Unshackle Upstate action center to send an e-mail to state legislators with a simple message: tax increases are unacceptable. If you're up for it - it's an even stronger message if you give them a call. You can find your individual senator's and assemblymembers's contact information here.

State Refuses to Act on DRP

The attempt by Governor David Paterson to link passage of a gay marriage bill to the budget deficit reduction package during the special session called earlier this week in Albany was, at best, an ill-conceived attempt on his part to gain political favor with organizations across the state that dumped millions of dollars into the Democrat's successful efforts to regain the majority in the Senate last year.

At a time when the state is faced with the aforementioned $4.1 billion hole in its budget, now is not the time to be attempting to curry political favor with any special interest group - they have bigger fish to fry.

Unfortunately, this is how business gets done, or should I say, doesn't get done in New York State.

Paterson, who in the past week stated that he is willing to mortgage his political future on balancing the state's coffers, has already backed off of the rhetoric, instead taking a virtual conciliatory tone with the Senate leadership.

The fiasco that is the New York State budget is not going to cure itself. It will take significant and substantive action by the state legislature to get the state off of this current path of financial ruin. Our elected leaders in Albany must come to their senses, place politics on the back burner and put the interests of the masses before the interests of the few.

If the state needs some suggestions as to where to cut, please click here.

State legislature absent despite $4.1 (and growing) budget deficit

A special session of the state legislature has been scheduled for next week Monday to deal with a budget deficit that NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli has described as $4.1 billion. However, there still seems to be some question as to whether the legislature will actually return to Albany for the session.

For us, this is unacceptable. As the budget grows, the state legislature has refused to weigh in at all. To his credit, the governor has put forth a deficit reduction proposal - and also to his credit, it avoids tax increases. While the Partnership and Unshackle Upstate coalition have presented some alternative specifics, in principle we've acknowledged the governor's spirit in getting down to business without resorting to the awful budget-balancing tactics that have plagued business and personal taxpayers in New York State since earlier this Spring.

In fact, really the only response we've seen by the state legislature is a series of staged hearings throughout the state. Unshackle Upstate was present and delivered testimony at two so far: One in Syracuse where our executive director was booed when he suggested - get this, that the state has to control spending - and the chairman of the State Senate committee hosting the hearing was overheard saying, "How did this guy get on the speakers' list?" and the second here in Buffalo held at a UAW hall. How can our state reps look taxpayers in the eye and tell them they're genuinely concerned about - and focused on - righting the state's financial ship when they're conducting official state business in a lobbying group's facilities? Doesn't give much credibility to their intentions.

Yesterday, the Partnership sent a letter to the WNY state delegation reemphasizing our call for them to return to Albany to deal with the state budget deficit - and do so with Unshackle Upstate's proposed spending reductions and reforms in hand. I also encourage you to get involved in the discussion by sending a VoterVoice message to the state legislature urging them to get back to the job you hired them to do.

Hardwick, Dixon & Fudoli Win

In October, the Partnership made the decision to endorse in three of the Erie County Legislature races. While we don't always make endorsements at this level, we were spurred to engage by an issue before the legislature in July where the legislature majority had the opportunity to support a job-creating initiative and instead turned its back on taxpayers.

As a result of the Legislature's action, work on important not-for-profit expansion projects remains dormant and unavailable to Erie County's workforce. With that blatant example by sitting Erie County legislators of putting special interests ahead of taxpayers, the Partnership endorsed three challengers for various seats - each of whom we believe have a much clearer understanding of the challenges facing employers in the Buffalo Niagara region.

In addition, we felt that the make-up of the county legislature prior to the election, 12-3 with the Democratic Party holding the majority, inhibited the ability of County Executive Chris Collins to propose and pass pro-business legislation.

Therefore, we endorsed Kevin Hardwick in the 10th Legislative District, Lynne Dixon in the 12th Legislative District and Dino Fudoli in the 5th Legislative District.

We are pleased to announce that each of the Partnership-endorsed candidates for Erie County Legislature did win their respective races.

It is our hope that Mr. Hardwick, Ms. Dixon and Mr. Fudoli will support intiatives that will allow our economy to flourish, while giving Mr. Collins the ability to promote an agenda that isn't impeded by the threat of a veto at every turn.

Congratulations to the winners. The easy part is over - now it's time to go work.

"Dedicated" Highway and Bridge Fund

Yesterday, NYS Comptroller Tom DiNapoli released a startling, but not surprising, report, detailing how since 1991 only 1/3 of the state's Dedicated Highway and Bridge Trust Fund has actually been spent on transportation infrastructure. Startling, in the sheer amount of money that has been swept away from essential services to pay for the cost of big government in Albany. Not surprising in the sense that that attitude is status quo in Albany.

The Comptroller's announcement yesterday is nothing new for New York State taxpayers - this year's budget included just about every kind of "cash grab" initiative one could imagine (I'm being facetious, of course - I'm sure they can think of more!). From the "Bigger Badder Bottle Bill" (which kicks in tomorrow), to new taxes on health insurance and energy usage, to requiring every vehicle owner in NYS to incur the expense of a new license plate - Albany wants your money.

It'd even be a little easier to live with if the money was being used in an effective way - which it's not. We continue to support a government that has proven unable to cut (or control) costs, refuses to address expensive and out-of-control personnel costs, and hasn't put forth any plan for the future other than "we are facing a $44B budget gap over the next five years." The fact that "dedicated" highway funding is used for other things is a poster child example of Albany's lack of focus.

Today the Partnership will be presenting testimony before the Senate Transportation Committee regarding the governor's recent announcement that the state's Upstate transportation funding package is "unaffordable." This is particularly disconcerting because earlier this year, our Upstate representatives supported the $2.4B Metropolitan Transportation Authority bailout - which was unprecedented because generally the funding for Downstate and Upstate is handled at the same time. We had a promise that our infrastructure needs would be dealt with later in 2009, and now our employers and workforce are victims to a political budget battle, with Upstate's funding being held as leverage to get the state legislature to the table.

As Unshackle Upstate has pointed out many times, there are much more effective areas in which to frame the budget debate. We will be urging the governor and State Legislature to fund the Upstate infrastructure package.