Meeting in Purchase recently, agribusiness and environmental leaders on the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council pushed for agriculture”™s place as a key industry in the seven-county regional plan the council will send to Albany this fall in a statewide competition for economic development funds.
In a three-and-a-half hour meeting Sept. 15 at SUNY Purchase, council members hustled to adopt criteria and scoring standards for priority projects in the region for which the council will seek state funding in tandem with its regional strategic plan due on Nov. 14.
The mid-Hudson council”™s co-chairman, Dr. Leonard S. Schleifer, raised a shared concern about “grade inflation” as competing regional councils rate their respective jobs-creating projects and apply through a newly consolidated system in Albany for some $800 million in state program funds. Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, who led the meeting, said that potential scoring bias will be addressed by the statewide economic development council he heads, which includes co-chairpersons of all 10 regional councils appointed in August by Gov. Cuomo.
The mid-Hudson council followed its Purchase planning session this month with community forums in Ulster and Orange counties. The council has an Oct. 6 deadline to publicly release a preliminary strategic plan to guide the region”™s growth over the next five years. The final plan will be judged by state officials this fall and, if ranked among the top four statewide, could bring the region an initial $40 million in capital grants and employer tax credits from the state.
For council planners, “At the end of the day, it is about creating an environment where there are good jobs,” said Schleifer, president and CEO of Regeneron Pharmaceuticals Inc. in Greenburgh. The plan will be “a living document” that can be updated as needed after seeing “what”™s working and what”™s not,” he said.
Schleifer”™s drug development company represents an industry, biotechnology, whose growth in the region will be a focus of the council”™s industry-clustering strategy for job creation and economic growth. “Frankly, I”™d rather be the only game in town,” said Schleifer. But the region could benefit from a cluster of biotech companies, he said. “Remember, we”™re slaves to the region here and we have to do what”™s best for the region.”
The council”™s working group for industry clusters and strategy ”“co-chaired by Business Council of Westchester President and CEO Marsha Gordon and Jonathan Drapkin, president and CEO of Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress ”“ identified nine clusters for the sprawling region. They are: biotech and other life sciences; distribution; food and beverage; health care; high-tech manufacturing; information technology and data centers; natural resources; professional services and finance, and tourism.
“The clusters don”™t stand separately in silos,” said Gordon.
“There”™s an overlap. They inform and reinforce each other, and that”™s a good thing.”
The working group”™s industry list, though, omitted agriculture as a distinct cluster. It is “a significant component of the economy” and is a part of several identified clusters, said Gordon. But some council members, led by agribusiness interests in Orange, Putnam and Ulster counties, pressed to have agriculture added as a separate industry.
Council member Thomas J. Endres, president and chief operating officer of Continental Organics, said his company”™s aquaponics facility under construction in New Windsor is an example of the high-tech sustainable farming that will be a long-term benefit to the Hudson Valley economy. Starting as the first client of the Orange County Business Accelerator, Continental Organics will create 124 permanent and 83 construction jobs with its $50-million investment, Endres said.
The region already has an agricultural infrastructure to accommodate new projects, he said. “Our enemy is time here”¦we need jobs now. I think agriculture gives us chances to create jobs immediately.”
Gordon said the working group would add agriculture to its industry clusters. Westchester County Economic Development Director Laurence Gottlieb, an ex-officio member of the regional council, suggested the council needed a narrower focus if its plan is to be judged a winner in Albany. He said the council must target job numbers. “What we”™re being judged on in this competition is job growth,” Gottlieb said.
“If we have too many clusters out there, you”™re not going to get that money that”™s out there.”
very nice…………………..