Governor Paterson delivered a dud of a State of the State message today.  His message missed the mark on aggressively dealing with the state’s fiscal crisis and turning our economy around.

With the state nearly bankrupt and the jobless rate at an all-time high, 2010 is a pivotal year for New York state.  The leadership of the legislature must come to grips with reality and take action to rein in spending and decrease the size of government in order to lower taxes and improve the state’s economic climate.  We must do more than just “cap” state spending, it must be reduced.  This will lead to job creation and will expand upstate’s dwindling tax base.  Most importantly, it will result in the reform that New Yorkers care about most — fiscal restraint and relief from the state’s excessive tax and fee structure.  The governor failed to aggressively take on the downstate legislative leadership, which is the roadblock to fiscal restraint.

The elimination of the Empire Zone program will severely impact our ability to attract and grow business in upstate New York.  While the existing program started with some flaws, it has been reworked over the years to be the most effective economic development program in the country.  Our current Empire Zone Program which expires this June has been hugely successful across the Southern Tier/Finger Lakes region creating thousands of jobs here.  Projects like Sikorsky/Schweizer, Synthes, DeMet’s candy, Vulcraft/NUCOR steel and the new CVS distribution facility being constructed.

The governor spoke at length about fostering high tech and clean energy business, yet virtually ignored traditional manufacturing which is our base in the Southern Tier.  Furthermore, when speaking of clean energy he completely failed to mention the Marcellus Shale natural gas potential for clean energy initiatives.  If he is serious about job growth, why did he not highlight the thousands of jobs that will follow this natural gas exploration?

The Governor stressed reforming state government and if he is serious, I hope he will start by enacting reforms that limit the state’s ability to spend beyond it means, restrain the state’s out-of-control Medicaid program and provide relief to our local governments, businesses and most importantly, the citizens of New York state.