December 23, 2013
By Jonathan Drapkin / For the Times Herald-Record
It’s the holiday season — time for people to make lists of what they want. Sometimes they get the items on their lists, and sometimes they don’t.
In the world of economic development and government, a whole lot of list-making has been going on. Over the past several weeks, Gov. Andrew Cuomo has released two reports that list ways to change the tax landscape in New York, and he has announced the roster of winners and losers in the third round of grant competition among the state’s 10 economic development regions.
Lists in hand, let’s start with three premises:
1. The way things are could always be better.
2. It is impossible to make everyone happy.
3. We wish it weren’t so, but the New York business climate remains troubled, and is not about to make like Superman and leap tall buildings in a single bound.
Thank you
Because of this, we applaud the governor for taking on the state’s tax issues with not one but two commissions. We thank him for trying to empower local regions, such as the Hudson Valley, with a process that gives us some say in determining where very limited dollars might be spent to create jobs.
But on both the tax initiative and the grants competition, are there items that we lost out on? You bet. That thorn in our sides — the payroll tax — does not appear to be among the priorities for change. Reform of the opaque and overcomplicated system of property assessment is not high on anyone’s list, either. And most importantly, the Hudson Valley was not among the winning regions on the grants list, and that cost us about $20 million in additional funding.
And yet, many Hudson Valley priority projects were funded. The $1 million that will go toward a national hub for 3-D printing at SUNY New Paltz is, for instance, a real boost to the region. And we did get some hope from the tax commissions: Incentives for sharing and consolidating services are recommended, reform of the 18-a utility tax is possible, and an overhaul in the administration of the estate tax may indeed happen. Still, our expectations for this governor are high. Under this administration, there will be a new Tappan Zee Bridge, and there will be destination casino gaming. Both are issues that, until Cuomo became governor, were seemingly intractable. Both are issues of immeasurable importance to our region. You can’t blame us for wanting more.
Still on the list
When it comes to items still on our list, we’d like to see the same creativity the governor used to push gaming and the Tappan Zee forward now come to bear on tax reform. We’d like to see recommendation become reality, especially on the $1 billion shared services incentive.
As far as getting and not getting grants, we can accept there are four very happy regions in the state and that, here in the Hudson Valley, there are many individually happy project teams. But we’d like to be assured that even limited funds are spent wisely and with vision, and that these public dollars really do go toward the creation of jobs — fair-paying jobs that make life better for those who hold them.
— Jonathan Drapkin is president and CEO of Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, a nonprofit research, policy and planning group that seeks regional solutions to increase the vitality of the .
