Reprinted from Post Journal 1/16/10
''You have to compliment him,'' is what Bill Daly, Industrial Development Agency director, said about Gov. David Paterson's economic development plan he delivered earlier this week during the annual State of the State address.
Daly said Paterson is trying to focus on the fact the state has overspent, but sees economic growth as one of the solutions in overcoming enormous amounts of debt.
'At least he's given some reasonable, responsible reductions in spending and come up with an economic development plan,'' he said. ''It's how these proposals will come out. What is in the details will determine their relevance? Do they really cover everything necessary or leave some gaps?''
NEW EMPIRE ZONE
Empire Development Zone incentives, which were created to encourage businesses to move to the state, will sunset in June, but will be replaced by a new program - the Excelsior Jobs Program. The governor announced the new program that will focus on the high-tech and clean-energy growth jobs of tomorrow. Paterson said the Excelsior Jobs Program is the centerpiece of the most innovative job-creation agenda in the history of the state. The program includes three aggressive incentives for targeted growth industries. First, an expansion of the Research and Development Tax Credit to support innovation and enhance the state's role in the new economy. The second part of the new program includes the creation of an Enhanced Investment Tax Credit to support capital investment. With the third part being a new jobs incentive to target firms in the high technology, biotechnology, clean energy technology, finance and manufacturing industries. Firms that create and maintain a set number of new jobs in New York for five years will receive tax credits for a portion of the payroll costs associated with those new jobs.
''Unfortunately, the Empire Zone program has outlived its usefulness, which is why we are replacing it with a program that is focused, strategic, accountable, cost-effective and transparent,'' Paterson said. ''To develop the Excelsior Jobs Program, we spent the last year reaching out to hundreds of businesses and communities across our state to find out how we can best build a program that delivers what it promises. The result: three aggressive tax incentives for targeted growth industries. We've learned from this recession that New York is nothing if not a fighter and we are going to fight for these new jobs." Daly said the research and development tax credits is a positive way to encourage businesses to do more within the state.
''We want to reward those who do (research and development) in this state. We need to encourage companies to expand their (research and development) departments to do it here in the state, not somewhere else,'' Daly said.
Daly said there is no timetable to determine if the new Excelsior Jobs Program will work as well as Empire Development Zones. However, he said if the new program doesn't work or only helps certain areas of the state, the problem will quickly be noticed.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT AND JOB CREATION
Daly said other ideas in the governor's speech are intriguing as well. He said the plan for a $25 million New Technology Seed Fund to create possibly the next Silicon Valley in the state is a great idea given the research universities in the state. The fund would help institutions of higher learning grow their research and strengthen partnerships with the business community to advance their work to commercialization.
''New York state has great research universities here, both public and private. We have patentable intellectual property, but it does little to turn into job creation in New York,'' Daly said. ''We don't have much of a culture of taking great ideas for new products, software and services developed in state and keeping them here. It usually gets bought by someone else and they take it out of state.''
Other economic development and job creation ideas discussed by Paterson included revitalizing old manufacturing sites to rejuvenate them for the modern business world. Paterson said he wants to partnering with regional non-profit business organizations to help aggressively market these locations nationally and internationally to create industrial assistance centers to educate businesses on alternative manufacturing approaches and marketing efforts.
The governor also discussed back office jobs, which are generally considered to be the technology, services and human resource jobs required to manage a company. Back office includes such systems as the IT, human resources and accounting departments.The state is home to an estimated 60,000 back office jobs. Paterson wants to focus on expanding the state's back office opportunities by making Upstate New York the preferred back office for corporate America. Daly said this is a great concept for the county given the significance of expanding broadband throughout the area. He said with broadband technologies available, the county can be marketed to corporate America as an area with a quality workforce for employees where the cost of business can be done cheaper.
''The company can come here with a lower cost of business and be as connected as anywhere else,'' Daly said.
By Dennis Phillips
