“During the Great Depression, we built the Empire State Building” ”“ an affirmation, said Gov. David Paterson in his first State of State address, that the phoenix can rise from the ashes. This time, the ashes are from the centers of financial commerce that plunged into an abyss of its own making, taking 20 percent of the state”™s income with it.
Calling New York”™s current fiscal crisis the worst since 1929, Paterson outlined plans to bring manufacturing back to the western part of the state, create tax incentives for businesses, focus on creation of clean energy to make New York less dependent on foreign oil and to make health care a priority for all New Yorkers, and vowing to write legislation that will allow parents to continue to carry grown children ages 19 through 29 on their health care plans.
With more than 60,000 jobs already lost on Wall Street, Paterson said it is reasonable to assume more than 225,000 more jobs will be lost before New York comes out of the recession, with laid-off employees losing health care and homes as an added measure of misery.
In response to his plans to make Empire Zones more accountable ”“ causing considerable consternation and concern among dozens of counties that depend on them as the sole incentive to bring business to the region ”“ Paterson acknowledged the program needed reform and that for every $1 invested by the state there must be a $20 return on the EZ investment. How Paterson plans to accomplish this is uncertain, since many who qualified when they applied are now going to be asked to recertify.
Whether his ambitious plan to reinvent the Empire Zones will pass muster in the Legislature remains to be seen when they convene to pass a balanced budget by April 1. Paterson”™s proposed $121.1 billion budget includes nearly 100 new fees to augment the loss of income from Wall Street.
Paterson said New York has more than 60 shovel-ready infrastructure sites waiting for infusion of money, something he hopes will come to the state from the federal stimulus package, referring the Tappan Zee Bridge as one infrastructure project that would benefit.
Paterson told assembled lawmakers and guests that state mandates are too cumbersome and need relief. The state will use savings from those “accountable tax breaks currently given” into new industries ”“ biotech and manufacturing. “Yes,” reiterated Paterson, “manufacturing … many are coming back to the United States. Let”™s get them to bring their money back” to New York. He cited the rejoined Empire State Development Corp. as a means to make it happen, although its current chairman, Robert Wilmers, president of M&T Bank in Buffalo, has yet to publicly address the needs of regions below the Capital District.
Paterson”™s “45 by 2015” plan espouses reducing dependency on foreign oil by 45 percent by 2015 by creating an alternative energy platform, one which will eventually bring relief to tax burdened property owners. “We will make energy our new rate of exchange,” said the governor, who vowed to pursue federal money to make it happen. Paterson plans to create an upstate consortium to focus on energy initiatives and a way for researchers to work together, similar to stem cell research he witnessed while on his trip to the Middle East. “While the six hospitals did not work together, they shared information so there is no duplication of effort.”
Saying he has taken actions as governor he “would have never imagined I would have taken when I was in the Senate …I have vetoed legislation I previously sponsored … political decisions come from the best ethical decisions. If we follow in the footsteps of our antecedents, New York, the greatest state in the union, will have to make the same decisions thousands of families across the state have made ”“ we will sacrifice what we want today in order to achieve what we want tomorrow. No New Yorker is going to be exempt from this movement. Don”™t confuse current peril ”“ the economic collapse is not just affecting us, but every state and across the globe.” New York”™s intellectual property, educational system and the tenancy of its citizens will “save our great state in this heroic time.”
