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Regional Councils

Governor Andrew Cuomo announced early in his term that he'd be creating a set of "regional economic councils" to build plans for funding economic development across New York, from the ground up.In the summer of 2011 he finally announced some of the details of the program, to be led by Lieutenant Governor Robert Duffy. The ten councils each have dozens of members, and are charged with gathering input from the public and business leaders, and creating a plan by November 14. Those plans will be pitted against each other for a pot of $1 billion in grants, incentives, and tax relief from various state agencies. The winners will get more funding, the losers will get less.But other details - like whether funding will be available past the initial term, and who will serve on the board that decides who wins and who loses - have not been released.The Innovation Trail is looking for your feedback about what your regional economic priorities are, and what you want your community to look like once the councils have completed their task.

Watch all 10 regional economic councils present their plans

WXXI News | By Rachel Ward, Editor

Published December 1, 2011 at 1:30 PM EST

There are a lot of Jackons at stake in the competition for regional economic development funds.

New York's regional economic development councils are competing for a pot of state cash.

Earlier this week, each council made their pitch to the panel that will choose the winners. To review, here's what's at stake:

Right off the bat (in the 2011-2012 budget year) there's $130 million in capital funds available, and $70* million in Excelsior Tax Credits [PDF], for a total of $200 million.
Four winning councils will take home $40 million for their plans.
The other six councils will split the remaining cash - another $40 million.
There's another $800 million available from a gamut of state agencies, ranging from the Canal Corporation to Empire State Development.
The biggest chunk of the rest of the money - $350 million - is in the form of bonding authority, so that economic development entities (like industrial development agencies) can sell tax exempt bonds for private firms.

So how well did each region sell their plan to create jobs and do their part to revive the state's economy? You be the judge - here are the presentations.

*Corrected: An earlier version of this story listed $30 million in Excelsior Tax Credits - that was a typo./RMW

Long Island Region, presented 11/28

Finger Lakes Region, presented 11/28

Southern Tier Region, presented 11/29

Capital Region, presented 11/29

Central New York Region, presented 11/29

New York City, presented 11/29

Mid-Hudson Region, presented 11/29

Mohawk Valley Region, presented 11/30

North Country Region, presented 11/30

Western New York Region, presented 11/30