Monday, June 30, 2008

Good Money After Bad . . .

"$15 Million Griffiss Project Advances" . . .
This is throwing good money after bad . . .

But who's counting??? and Who counts?

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

It's a tough call. Empire Aero Center is actually expanding, a nearly magical feat in Upstate NY's business climate. I think that renovating the hangar area for them probably makes sense. As for the "executive" hangars and 'T' hangars they've been talking about, well, uhm, I'm not so sure about those.

Strikeslip said...

I would love to see a calculation of the total amount of taxpayer subsidies going into Empire Aero . . . including the incremental additional cost to maintain Griffiss as opposed to the old County Airport in Whitestown . . . and including providing "workforce development" for them through MVCC.

I see government picking our pockets to grow certain businesses, while other businesses fold because they no longer have pockets to pick!

Anonymous said...

Boy Strike - Damned if you do and damned if you don't...if EAC wanted the hangar and the County didn't do this deal, you'd be complaining about the County not helping out a growing company.

I really don't get your logic sometimes.

Strikeslip said...

Anon -

What is our Return On Investment?

Empire Aero is the only business that NEEDS the aircraft-related facilities at Griffiss. The Old Airport was well maintained, served County needs well, and could have served County needs for the forseeable future. See my related post of 7/1/08.

Until I see some ROI numbers, I think spending more money at Griffiss is an unjustifiable burden on the taxpayers.

Anonymous said...

Just what is meant by “return on investment?” Is the fact that the utility company lobby, labor union lobby, aerospace lobby constitute a return on investment? If these special interest lobbies are successful in terms of having our elected officials keep utility rates elevated, wages artificially elevated, and corporate welfare money flowing in return for campaign PAC money, is this return on investment? We have return on investment, but the return does not return to the benefit of the taxpayer. Rather the return, to the tune of $millions, is reciprocated to the elected official’s campaign finance coffers.

It is too costly to conduct business here in New York State. It is particularly hard for us here in upstate New York because our elected officials simply roll over and play dead when the downstate politicians place millstones around our necks like increased thruway tolls and increase our utility rates to subsidize downstate utility bills. Their return on investment comes when the downstate politicians, utility PACS and special interest PACS contribute to upstate elected official’s reelection campaigns. We need real and honest campaign finance reform before we could ever realize any genuine return on OUR investment. Our excessive utility bills, perpetual increasing highway tolls, and artificially elevated taxes boot the businesses we already have out of upstate New York.