The Upstate Economy

Job figures are on the rise across New York state,  however private-sector jobs in some upstate areas have declined according to the state Department of Labor’s latest jobs report.

Western New York has missed out on being the setting for a major motion picture, but Republican state Senator Patrick Gallivan hopes the loss of the movie “Draft Day,” starring Kevin Costner, will help push along a bill that would offer tax credits for films to be shot in New York state.

The City of Rochester has been given state approval to establish one of the state’s ten Land Banks. The city’s Land Bank will support the acquisition of vacant, tax-delinquent properties which will then be  renovated and sold through the HOME Rochester program. The aim is to also get more properties back on the tax rolls.

The library lobby is heading to Albany today to ask lawmakers to restore funding that has been lost for five years now.

The Environmental Protection Agency announced this month it will be providing technical assistance to three western New York communities. They were chosen out of 121 applicants and are three of 43 communities to be assisted across the country. The EPA will provide the aid by delivering workshops on developing sustainable growth strategies.

In an essay in Forbes Magazine, entrepreneurship expert and Syracuse native Carl Schramm knocks his hometown for forgetting its innovative roots and potentially dooming its future.

The federal government's across-the-board spending cuts known as the sequester are set to kick in Friday, barring an agreement between Congress and the president. That means a big impact for defense spending, including for Fort Drum, an important regional economic driver.  

A coalition of upstate New York universities and defense contractors has submitted a bid to become a federally designated testing and research site for the integration of unmanned aircraft systems, or UAS, into domestic airspace.

The Port of Oswego could be in line for some business-boosting help from the federal government. Sen. Charles Schumer is hoping to use his clout to get some help to keep the port growing.

In Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s proposed budget, the state’s Industrial Development Agencies, or IDAs, would no longer be able to grant state sales tax exemptions for economic development projects. Instead, that authority will go to Cuomo's Regional Economic Development Councils.