Albany@Work - no longer an oxymoron.

It's amazing how different a little over a year can make in the fundamental way a place operates, especially a place that's long been known for corruption and dysfunction. New York's capital in late 2010 was wrought with bad budgets, worse legislation, and a not-so-healthy mix of infighting and/or scandal amid the state's legislators who regularly convened here. Fast forward a year that included a fiscally sound budget, and productive, logical legislation from a refreshingly aggressive Governor and new, cooperative Senate Majority, and Albany 2012 is a whole new world.

Legislators are jovial with each other despite being from opposite parties, another fiscally sound budget that tackles issues such as pension reform and mandate relief is being proposed with widespread support, and legislative meetings run as smooth as silk. Partnership staff was in Albany this past week to experience these changes firsthand, and it was flat out awesome.

Meet with a Democratic Assemblyman about innovation investment like SBIR? "We'd love to do it; let's work together!"

Meet with a Republican Senator about the Buffalo Building Re-Use Project's asbestos legislation recommendations? "Great idea, let's use that language. Send it to my staffer."

Review the Partnership's # 1 priority, Proceeds, with the Governor's energy staff? "The money is there for Western New York, let's figure out out how to get it done. It makes sense."

In a very short period of time, the Partnership's advocacy team has went from fighting the "defensive" battles to stop bad bills from passing, to coming up with proactive, positive pieces of legislation that are well received by lawmakers and have a great shot of becoming a reality. While the change is sudden, it is welcome. A few more years like 2011, and based on this past week in Albany, 2012 looks promising, New York will be poised to reclaim it's status as the Empire State.

This is why we do what we do. It's why we are in Albany and DC, pushing for legislative changes that help the job creators and taxpayers of New York; it's why we engage politically and fought for real changes in the Legislature during the 2010 elections. It's why we'll continue to be aggressive in advocacy and in the political arena. We at the Partnership can't wait for New York State's economic revival, and will be a part of the uphill climb to make it happen!

DC Lobbying Trip Recap

Reporting back on a very positive trip to DC earlier this week with our Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition. It was a busy two days, and our coalition - the 20 of us that participated from various chambers of commerce from throughout the Great Lakes region - left seeing real opportunity to move some initiatives forward that will have great impact on our mega-regional economy.

Overall, our team met with members or staff from 16 congressional offices, including regional representatives from Illinois, Michigan, Pennsylvania, Ohio, New York and Wisconsin and key committee leadership. Our message focused on two items: (1) passage of a comprehensive, long-term surface transportation bill and (2) implementation of the "Beyond the Border" accord between Canada and the United States.

The good news: everyone seems to be on board with those two priorities. The more difficult part, of course, is getting them done. But across the board we were told as a coalition that what we were doing - heading down to the nation's capitol on behalf of 150,000 business in the region to express the importance of these initiatives - is exactly what's needed to keep pressure on our reps to move them forward. We will continue to do so.

We also had a great meeting with the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S. Gary Doer (that's a picture of my colleagues and me at the Embassy), and to no one's surprise, Canada is in full support of our agenda. We were thrilled that our Canadian Consul General Marta Moszczenska joined us on the trip to help hammer that point home.

A couple state issues that we discussed, as well, where federal support is needed include New York's ballast water regulations, and the completion of the Continental 1 trade corridor - both items included in the Buffalo Niagara's 2012 Regional Agenda.

As an organization, we know that these legislative visits - whether they be to Albany or Washington - are key to getting things done on our members' behalf. The dynamic of the Great Lakes coalition, where representatives from three or four different states are meeting with individual legislators talking about the same priorities, carries some weight because we know it's something they don't see often. We're looking forward to an aggressive campaign on these issues in 2012 and will keep you posted on their progress.

DC Lobbying Trip - Taking Buffalo Niagara's Priorities to Washington

A couple years ago, the Partnership made an internal decision to put our government affairs and business development staff under one umbrella. Besides the fact that some of our staff members have dual roles that fall into both departments, through over 450 face-to-face visits with employers over the past three years it's evident that the two are inextricably linked.

One thing we know from our employer visits is that most of our members do not have their own internal government affairs departments. Many of our larger members do, but for the majority, no. That's where the Partnership comes in - with our connections, we are able to serve as our members' lobbyists and government affairs agents at a fraction of the cost of bringing someone full-time in-house. Experience tells us this is an important service; I would say that for every ten companies with whom we have sit-down meeting, five have a government issue with which they need assistance.

Our role, as our members' emissary, is to take their message to our elected officials. This week, our staff will be in Washington, DC advocating on our members' behalf as part of a 4-year-old coalition of chambers of commerce from throughout the Great Lakes region, the Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition. We will be meeting face-to-face with congressional representatives from the Great Lakes mega-region, as well as key committee chairs and the Canadian Ambassador to the U.S.

While you can read our coalition's full agenda at the link above, our message on this particular trip is a simple one: the Great Lakes' economy will take a strong step toward revitalization with action on two initiatives currently underway in Washington - passage of a comprehensive, long-term transportation funding bill and implementation of the Obama/Harper "Beyond the Border" accord. Both have specific impact on the Buffalo Niagara region, our workforce and our economy.

If we're successful, what does it mean (in other words, why are we doing this?)? It means advancement of stifled infrastructure projects in the region and the jobs that come with them. It means new border policy that will allow for the Buffalo Niagara region to grow and better market its trade, logistics, warehousing and distribution opportunities and the jobs that come with that. It means easing the ability to do business with peers on the Canadian side of our border that will lead to business opportunity for Buffalo Niagara's employers, and the jobs that come with that.

Our members - Buffalo Niagara's employers - rely upon the Partnership to be their voice in local, state and federal government. For us, it's incredibly rewarding to come back from Albany or Washington (we'll be in both this week) to tell our members that we moved the needle on the issues that they've told us are important to them.

We hope to come home this week with some good news. Until then, keep track of the trip on our facebook page and Twitter (#BNPatwork).

partnership@work ... in three places at once!

It's always fun to see how much is going on at the Partnership.  Last week, we rolled out our Buffalo Building Reuse Project to an immediate and positive response from Mayor Byron Brown, hosted Execs Connect, and held the second meeting of our new Perspectives Council.  Next week, we'll wrap our insurance open enrollment period for 2012, which helps more than 800 Buffalo Niagara employers achieve cost certainty and flexibility in their employee benefits programs.

In the midst of all that, this week is a busy week in our federal and state advocacy efforts.  Two Partnership teams will be simultaneously advocating for Buffalo Niagara business growth in Albany and Washington in the first part of this week.  Through the magic of hard work, air travel, car travel, and lots of online activity, we'll be updating you on these efforts as they happen. 


AJ Wright, our Manager of Government Affairs, is in Albany to ensure that the needs of Buffalo Niagara employers stay top of mind for our elected officials.  His big three goals for the trip are:

1. Continuing to draw attention to the need for Proceeds legislation, which we had hoped to see in the Governor’s 2012 Executive budget.
2. Distributing the Partnership's 2012 legislative agenda – mandate relief; Roswell Park regulatory relief; includes IDA “civic facilities” legislation.
3. Continuing to advocate for our Accelerate Upstate agenda, which we developed this summer with the support of 300 stakeholders from across NYS. 

AJ has meetings scheduled with a host of our elected officials as well as a number of our partners and peer organizations in Albany.  Watch for a recap of his work Wednesday on this blog. 


Meanwhile, three staffers - Andrew Rudnick, Craig Turner, and Nadine Powell - will be at work in Washington DC to draw attention to our needs and efforts on the federal level.  They're in town to push for our big six Buffalo Niagara job growth priorities in 2012.  Craig Turner will be blogging about our work in DC - watch for updates from him both this afternoon and on Thursday.


These aren't sightseeing trips; there's real work to get done.  We've made enormous progress in the last six months, but there's much more left to do.  Follow our efforts on our facebook page, on our twitter feed (use hashtag #BNPatWORK for updates specific to these trips), and keep watching our blog.

Don't forget, it's business as usual here in Buffalo.  BN360 is hosting Gamechangers this Wednesday on the Medical Campus.  We'll keep you posted. 

Buffalo Building Reuse Project Recommendations Released

Earlier today we released our Buffalo Building Reuse Project (BBRP) recommendations to help downtown compete more effectively in the 21st century. 

We completed BBRP over the course of 2011 at the request of Mayor Brown to add some private sector perspective to the downtown development process.  Our BBRP volunteers - more than 30 developers, tenants, landlords, academics, public officials, and real estate agents- considered both the possibilities and the challenges facing downtown. 

Downtown has both an oversupply of commercial space and growing demand for residential units, so our volunteers recommended an aggressive conversion strategy to transition older commerical buildings into residential space.  BBRP outlines several steps to help that happen, ranging from zoning and permitting changes, to targeted public investments, to creating a lead agency with the purpose of helping developers accelerate downtown projects. 

Mayor Brown responded favorably to BBRP, committing to seeing the recommendations through and announcing a multimillion dollar investment to fund necessary improvements.

You can read much more below:

• BBRP final report
• An email Andrew Rudnick sent to our membership about BBRP earlier today
• Business First's in-depth review of BBRP