Schumer touts ‘credit for success’
The crowd waiting outside Villa Barone in Mahopac on March 12 for U.S. Senator Charles Schumer, D-NY, was not warm and fuzzy, but the reception the long-time senator received once inside was considerably warmer. It was Schumer”™s first visit to the Mahopac-Carmel Chamber of Commerce.
Outside, about a dozen hecklers ”“ apparently opposed to health care reform and other divisive Washington initiatives ”“ waved signs and booed New York”™s senior senator.
Once out of the fray, Schumer focused on job creation, the new “Credit for Success” loan program rolled out by Ulster county and new incentives Washington is creating to help bring jobs to the state and nation. He touched briefly on the health care bill now stalled in Congress.
Unemployment numbers in the lower Hudson Valley were at 6.9 per cent at the end of 2009 and have risen to 7.6 percent since. Schumer said it “appears the Hudson Valley has been hit more disproportionately.” In his rounds of the mid-Hudson, Schumer said what”™s most disturbing is the number of higher-paying, white- and blue-collar jobs that have been lost. “These are the people that spend and keep the economy going, and many of them have been out of work for months, some for more than a year…and the trend is continuing. It is also another factor that is keeping consumer spending at an all-time low.”
Schumer said when he sat down with Tresury Secretary Henry Paulson and Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in mid-2008 and was told “we were facing a ”˜Great Depression”™ if AIG collapsed, it was said with such calm, it was frightening; yes, we bailed out these financial institutions. We don”™t have a depression, thankfully, but we do have have a ”˜Great Recession”™ to contend with.”
Schumer said keeping financial institutions afloat by lending them money through the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) was government”™s answer to solving what was considered an imminent meltdown. “Some banks refused to take the money, others did not; some have repaid, some have not. And those who have not are going to repay all they borrowed,” said Schumer. “It is taxpayer money, and we want it back.”
Schumer said he is battling to keep companies like Westchester”™s Pepsi Bottling in the state, where a potential loss of 1,000 jobs would be a “devastating blow to our economy.” While some new business is coming in, with Schumer naming Spectrawatt in the town Fishkill in Dutchess County and another New Jersey-based manufacturer negotiating a move to Rockland county”™s town of Orangeburg, “It”™s imperative for us to continue to keep New York an attractive place to do business.”
Schumer also stressed the need to get Hudson Valley tourism “to live up to its full potential. If someone comes here to visit, they are spending money, staying in hotels and keeping our restaurants open. Last year, $5.7 billion and 6 percent of all employment was a result of tourism dollars.”
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Schumer said he”™s working to get funding for the crumbling Bannerman Castle. “It is not ”˜pie in the sky”™ to look at the prospects,” he said. “Walkway Over the Hudson had more tourists in three months than were expected for the entire year.”
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The intellectual capacity in the Hudson Valley is another draw for business, “who may find it cheaper to move to other states, but they need a well-educated workforce to make their companies a success. That”™s something we can offer that many can”™t,” said Schumer.
He touted the new “Credit for Success” program rolled out by Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, a consortium of banks that each put money into a loan program to make funds available to qualified borrowers. “A company needing an $80,000 loan may have a difficult time dealing with a single bank,” Schumer said. “But with the ”˜Credit for Success”™ program, each bank is taking a small part of the loan, so the risk is less and easier to manage, if it should happen. It”™s working in Ulster and we want to roll this program out to every county in the state.”
Schumer said he”™d also like to see the $30 billion of outstanding TARP loans go into a program that helps small business borrowers.
In another job-creation move, Schumer and U.S. Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah have penned legislation that has already passed both houses that will give employers a one-year reprieve from payroll taxes if they hire an employee who has been out of work at least 60 days. “The tax credit is immediate, and we are estimating it could create as many as 3 million jobs nationally,” said Schumer.
He did not ignore the health care bill stalemate in Congress and promised that some type of national reform was coming: “Hopefully, the Senate”™s version, which will cost taxpayers nothing,” he said.
Rather than Medicaid reimbursements being sent to the state “where they are never seen again,” said Schumer, “the reimbursements are going back to the counties: $3.6 million to Putnam, $19 million Westchester and $6 million to Rockland, to name a few.”
He assured John Federspiel, president of Hudson Valley Hospital in Cortlandt Manor, community hospitals were not going to suffer under any new legislation: “Rather, they will become stronger institutions for the community.”
Sandra Cassese, a vice president at Vassar Brothers Medical Center in Poughkeepsie, said hospitals “need help to stop patient coverage from being cut off, a loophole insurance companies have been using to hurt patients and the hospitals.”
While most Americans are dealing with the harsh reality of the worst recession since the Great Depression, Schumer said he”™s optimistic about the country”™s future. “I was told that America has the most amazing gift it is taking for granted: no matter who you are, you can achieve anything you put your mind to, a quality not found in any other country in the world.”
Said Putnam County Executive Bob Bondi: “Even though we belong to different parties, Schumer has worked in a bi-partisan manner for the state. He”™s got an amazing amount of energy and sincerely cares about New York. I”™m in favor of the ”˜credit for success”™ program here in Putnam county.”
Nick Chahales, owner of PEC Group of New York Inc., a security company in Mahopac, said, “Schumer wants to help the Hudson Valley. He came to a Republican-dominated area, so it”™s no surprise he did not receive the kind of welcome he might get in other places, but his heart is in the right place. I do hope these bills are going to help small business and create jobs.”
John Sauro, founder of the northern Westchester County Tea Party Patriots, doesn”™t see Washington”™s dysfunction helping anyone, either in the Hudson Valley or anywhere else in the U.S., asking Schumer what he is doing to help bring down the state”™s tax burden in Washington.