As the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council began a three-month push to shape a shared vision and plan for jobs and business growth here, public and private-sector leaders pressed the state and council with their priorities for the region”™s economic recovery.
At the top of those priority wish lists for project funding is infrastructure.
In White Plains, Westchester County Association President William M. Mooney Jr. urged Gov. Cuomo”™s recently appointed council for the seven-county Hudson Valley region to give priority to infrastructure, sustainable urban renewal and business incubators in the strategic plan and project funding applications it sends to Albany in November.
The WCA, Westchester”™s second-largest business membership group, is not directly represented on the 21-member council. Council members met for the first time on Aug. 9 on the SUNY New Paltz campus.
“We need funding to improve our region”™s infrastructure in order to meet current and future energy, power, technology, transportation and telecommunications needs,” Mooney said in a statement. “This is critical.”
Mooney said state funding also is needed to support incubators and accelerators for emerging businesses. “Innovation is a key economic catalyst,” he said.
The WCA chief also urged the council to seek state funding for sustainable development in the region”™s cities in the form of workforce housing, rezoning for mixed-use development, energy-efficient green buildings and overall investment in downtown areas.
Of the mid-Hudson region”™s 12 cities, only Mount Vernon in Westchester and Port Jervis in Orange County lost population from 2000 to 2010, according to U.S census figures assembled by the governor”™s office. The region includes seven of the state”™s fastest-growing cities in the last decade: Middletown, at 10.9 percent; Poughkeepsie, 8.6 percent; White Plains, 7.1 percent; New Rochelle, 6.8 percent; Rye and Peekskill, both at 5.1 percent, and Beacon, at 5 percent.
In Dutchess County, business leaders and elected officials recently joined in urging the mid-Hudson council and regional councils statewide to direct funds to shovel-ready infrastructure projects.
They gathered along state Route 22 in Pawling, where a shovel-ready sewer line project awaits a funding source. Officials said completion of that jobs-creating infrastructure work would allow proposed private business and retail developments to proceed.
Assemblyman Steve Katz, Republican from Yorktown, said Route 22 was an “important corridor” through his 99th Assembly district “where we have shovel-ready projects that would not only create construction jobs but attract businesses to our area and offer good-paying jobs for the long term.
“If utilized correctly, the regional economic councils can help New York reclaim its position as a model of innovation for the rest of the nation,” Katz said.
Marist College President Dennis Murray, co-chairman of the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council, at presstime did not return a call for comment on the council”™s inaugural meeting. Kenneth Adams, Empire State Development president and CEO, also could not be reached for comment.
