The Gov was in town today, handing out money. The Stanley Theater will get $2.23 million. Rome will get $2.25 million to clean up a brownfield.
Good Worthy Projects, to be sure. . . . and appreciated . . . BUT . . .
Does anyone really believe that renovating a theater and cleaning up one brownfield will revitalize the regional economy? I don't. Albany's economy has been revitalized by state spending -- but Albany has received $2.2 Billion for two projects alone (and more when others are included) -- and the Albany region economy, because it is the seat of state government, was never sick to begin with. If Albany is the example, it would literally take a $Billion (and probably more) in the Utica/Rome region alone, and multiple $Billions in the other Upstate metro areas to achieve what has been done in Albany. But that kind of money has not been offered. . . . and probably won't be because ... we can't afford it.
New York is near the bottom in job creation. Obviously New York State is doing something very very different from the other states to cause this situation. Where is the analysis of what New York is doing wrong (not that it takes too much to figure out)? Where is there a plan of action to correct the wrongs that New York has done and is doing which drive people and jobs away?
No Where.
But all our legislators and local officials will ooh and ahh over the money being given to them for local projects . . . and probably be on their 'best behavior,' so to speak, to keep the spigot from being turned off. Meantime . . .
None of the real problems get fixed.
Check out the comments under last Thursday's post for my short list of where to start.
No comments:
Post a Comment