Significance Unshackle Upstate focuses on advocating for business climate policy reforms that will make Upstate more competitive for expanding and retaining private sector jobs and investment. We believe such policy reforms are the principal way economic development in Upstate should and actually will occur, and do so on a sustaining basis. In that context, we also believe Upstate's competitiveness can improve with the reengineering of current economic development policies and funding streams. The goal is not to have more State spending, but rather to redirect some of what the State currently spends away from short-term consumption and towards long-term investment projects.
Impact Economic development initiatives can have the most impact if funding criteria is focused not only on jobs created, but also on job retention, total payroll and capital investment. Moreover,the State should evaluate the way economic development impacting programs are delivered, combining them where applicable under one entity – New York Empire State Development Corporation – and by streamlining applications and reducing approval timelines to ensure the greatest impact.
Solutions Unshackle specifically urges the Governor and state legislature to take the following steps:
Establish a new land development program to foster public/private partnerships aimed at creating large-scale shovel-ready sites for strategic target industry clusters. These efforts should build on existing regional strengths, target a specific strategic growth industry, and present a convincing case that they will attract large-scale business to the region.
Expand upon and implement the "Regional Partnership" program concept initially proposed under NYSTAR. Economic development strategies that are conceived directly by regional leaders and experts will stand a far greater chance of actually expanding jobs and investment and doing so over the long run.
The state Labor Department should realign the State's workforce development programs to be more directly tied to and supportive of the current and projected needs of employers. The primary "customer" for state workforce development programs is the employer. Thus, making these programs customer friendly and job/skill savvy will dramatically increase their economic development effectiveness.