It'll be interesting to see what NYPA's economic development web page will look like following last week's deficit-reduction budget deal that will ultimately take $750 million in funding that could be used to spur business investment and put it into the state's general fund. There's an awful lot of good information on this page about how the Power for Jobs program and other initiatives to utilize low-cost power as an economic development incentive have been successful.
While Power for Jobs is, indeed, a statewide program (much of the hit from the redirection of funding will be felt in central New York - Binghamton, Syracuse, etc.), the sting will certainly be felt here in Buffalo Niagara, particularly since the power is generated right in our backyard. The Partnership and our Regional Agenda municipal partners have long advocated for the proceeds of power sales to be used for economic development purposes within a 30-mile radius of the Niagara Power Project.
This is a incredibly short-sighted development from Albany (surprised?). With wage-mandating IDA bills in each house now, proposed revocation of Empire Zone incentives, and now the elimination of funds meant to stave off high New York energy costs - it feels as though there is an all-out assault on economic development in our state. Particularly Upstate economic development. Even while the federal government does whatever it can to stimulate the economy and spur job creation, New York is undoing those efforts by devastating programs designed to attract private sector investment.
Say what you want about "corporate welfare"... You're not going to revitalize the state's economy by continuing to overspend and waste money on government. We've been trying that approach for a while, and, well, you see where we are.
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