SOS (Same Old, Um, Stuff)

Anyone who harbored any lingering hopes that Governor Spitzer might put some new ideas to work to spur upstate's economic growth, saw them dashed once and for all with the announcement of his economic development team today.  His choices and their records are just more of the same of New York State's (Democrat and Republican alike) big-government, "five year plan" style of dealing with business.  To begin with they're professional bureaucrats.

Daniel Gundersen, who has run day-to-day operations at Pennsylvania's economic development office since 2003 after similar stints at agencies in Maryland and Philadelphia, will become co-chairman of the state's Empire State Development Corp. and head of its new upstate office in Buffalo

[...]

The governor, a Democrat, also is hiring Kenneth A. Schoetz, who headed Spitzer's Buffalo office while Spitzer was state attorney general, to be the agency's chief operating officer.

Schoetz, who had been Erie County attorney in the administration of then-County Executive Dennis T. Gorski, will be based in Buffalo, a move intended to send both a practical and symbolic message to upstate.

I've no reason to doubt that both of them are very good men and are hard-working and dedicated to their missions, but anyone who has ever had any responsibility for the operation of a business (and I exclude from that most medical, legal and accounting offices) knows that there is no substitute for private-sector experience.  No matter how sensitive to business success a bureaucrat may be, in the end he can only view development from the perspective of someone hired to oversee it rather than foster it.

Gundersen's resume does sound impressive, but we should certainly expect to see results beyond job counts.  What impact did his stated successes really have on Pennsylvania?  Well, Pittsburgh's still losing people, an estimated 50,000 since 2000.  Erie's shrinking, too.  While the city of Erie lost almost 12% of its population between 2000 and 2005, the area outside the city, Erie County, dropped by 5% itself.  Sound "eriely" familiar? 

Western Pennsylvania is that state's equivalent of upstate New York.  Mr. Gundersen may have achieved great success in attracting outside businesses to locate somewhere in PA, but it didn't translate into any growth for those areas that don't lie within an hour or two of Philly or New York.  Hey, your average New Yorker can probably attract business to Westchester, but that's not the problem.

So, at any rate, this is the plan:  the old fool's game of attracting outside businesses?  Every city and every state in the country is playing it, this is new?  Just a couple days ago, San Antonio announced that it had "landed" a $1/2 billion Microsoft data center.  But even in low-tax, cheap-electricity, nice-climate, non-union Texas it will cost them $25 million in tax breaks and incentives.  With our current tax structure and high power costs we cannot compete.

Now, Mr. Spitzer certainly has vowed to cut property taxes and workmen's comp costs and any cuts are welcome and will help.  But property taxes are almost never mentioned as a reason businesses won't locate or start up here.  The problems are high income and corporate taxes, the aforementioned expensive power costs and the fear that our union-happy labor force will organize the day after the plant opens (with the state's consent and encouragement) and force wages to unprofitable levels.

Those remain the areas we need to focus on.

As I said, this isn't just a Democrat issue; New York's Republicans have shown themselves to be just as stuck in the mud when it comes to business matters (can you say Pataki, though' cha could.)  There are never any new ideas, just the same past successes recycled for today.  Senator Bruno still clings to the belief that a $ multi-billion high-speed train between Buffalo and Albany would spur development here because railroads were once the backbone of the Empire State.  Well helloooo, trains are, like, so over. 

And I'm still waiting for some bright light to suggest that the state buy Rochester's high-speed ferry and put it to work on the Erie Canal hauling hogsheads of flour from Buffalo to New York.  And maybe it could even bring newly-arrived immigrants from the old country to staff the hungry steel-mills of Lackawanna on its return.

Sorry, I digress, but my point is that Governor Spitzer's plan is nothing new either.  He's certainly shown more than the usual attention to upstate and for that he's to be commended, but in the end he's demonstrated that he prefers to keep New York's high-tax and high-cost government in place and simply pay more to hire highly-skilled salesmen to try and convince the outside yokels that high costs are not a detriment to doing business.  Good luck with that.

In short, my advice to you is that if you already have a good job here, then by all means hang onto to it with both hands and feet.  But if you're hoping to get one in the near term, um, explore your options, if you know what I mean.