New York Unveils $1B Upstate Revitalization Fund

Last week, Gov. Eliot Spitzer gave New York’s first ever “State of the Upstate” address in Buffalo, outlining his administration’s $1 billion Upstate Revitalization Fund. Among the components intended to encourage economic growth in the northern part of the state are:

• $350 million for a Regional Blueprint Fund to construct development-ready sites and industrial parks, to provide loans for small businesses and to create an international marketing office for the Upstate. $10 million from the Blueprint Fund will be used to provide seed capital for 10-15 small companies.
• $115 million for new Upstate City-to-City Projects, which include $25 million for the University of Rochester’s Clinical and Translational Science Institute and Syracuse’s Connective Corridor.
• $100 million for an Investment Opportunity Fund, designed to be a competitive grant program administered by the Empire State Development Corporation.
• $50 million for an Agricultural Development Fund, a portion of which will be used to promote alternative fuel products in the state.
• $12 million to expand existing state programs that encourage high-technology development.
• $7 million to enlarge the state’s Universal Broadband Initiative.

Additional pieces of the Upstate Fund target housing, transportation, state park development and other quality of life issues. The $1 billion price tag for these initiatives would be supported by $612 million in Personal Income Tax bonds, $130 million from the sale of the state’s surplus property, $100 million from Mortgage Insurance Fund reserves, $100 million from auto insurance surcharges and $58 million from the state’s General Fund.

 

The proposed Upstate Fund is a component of New York’s other economic development programs, many of which were outlined in the SSTI’s review of Gov. Spitzer’s State of the State speech (see the Jan. 9, 2008 issue of the Digest). On Tuesday, Gov. Spitzer released his administration’s $124.3 billion budget for the fiscal year beginning on April 1.

 

The text of Gov. Spitzer’s State of the Upstate address can be read at:

http://www.ny.gov/governor/keydocs/0116081_speech.html

 

Additional information on New York’s proposed budget for 2008-09 can be found at:

http://publications.budget.state.ny.us/eBudget0809/ExecutiveBudget.html