Leaders of the Rochester Community Coalition are in Albany today, March 7,  to push for its list of priorities for state funding in 2011 - four projects aimed at promoting job growth and improving the local economy.

Coalition leaders will meet with Lt. Gov. Robert Duffy, Budget Director Robert Megna, Empire State Development President Kenneth Adams, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos, Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver and Rochester-area legislators, among others.

The coalition includes representatives of business, labor, city and county government, education and nonprofits.

The four projects identified are:

• $25 million for the Institute for Sustainability at Rochester Institute of Technology - The state investment is essential to completing a total public-private partnership fundraising goal of $107 million. In addition to providing several thousand new jobs regionally, the institute will establish the region as a global hub for the emerging green-tech economy. It is expected to create 100 professional and technical positions at RIT and 160 construction jobs over two years, and have $650 million in regional earning potential.
• $33 million to create the Health Sciences Center for Computational Innovation at the University of Rochester - This investment would go toward a potential public-private partnership that could reshape the delivery of health care by combining IBM's high performance computing resources and the University of Rochester's biomedical research enterprise. HSCCI will create the nation's largest and most powerful computer systems dedicated to health research, positioning Upstate New York as a hub of health innovation and technology development. The center could create more than 180 scientific and research jobs, and potentially generate more than $200 million in total research growth over 10 years.
• $5 million over four years to expand a Rochester After-School Initiative - This program, developed through collaboration among the City of Rochester, Rochester City School District, United Way and Community Foundation, is designed to help our youth find safe and constructive options, develop social skills, establish mentor relationship and provide access to academic enrichment.
  The investment will be used to bolster this program and develop a long-term implementation strategy, as well as allow the program to serve an additional 625 youth annually, aimed at helping reduce youth crime and improve graduation rates.
• $100 million for Interstate 390 Interchange Project - This project will overhaul the corridor from the Genesee River to the I-390-/I-590 Interchange to support and accommodate the increased traffic associated with planned growth of UR, RIT and Monroe Community College, as well as from projects along Mt. Hope Avenue and East Henrietta Road. CGR recently estimated that this infrastructure will be instrumental in institutional growth and business development that could add more than 20,000 jobs (both direct and indirect) to the region over the next 20 years. Construction of this project will create more than 850 jobs (both direct and indirect) and $42 million in labor income. The state has already committed $22 million to this project, but additional support is needed from the state as well as the region's Congressional delegation.