Tensions flared over the direction of the Western New York Regional Council during a meeting Monday.
As the body looks to compete with regions across the state for economic development dollars, members of the council voiced concerns about looming deadlines and a loss of focus.
Big picture thinking versus tangible projects
In the council’s planning process, there’s an inherent clash between council tasks calling for big picture thinking and vision and others emphasizing the tangible projects that create jobs.
“There’s going to be some tension and some change with that, but good tension. Tension in this case is very positive,” says Robert Duffy, New York’s lieutenant governor and chair of all of the councils.
Council members interrupted discussions about the region’s first task - compiling its five-year regional plan - multiple times on Monday, to voice concerns and ask questions about how concrete the plans will be.
That’s putting the cart before the horse, Duffy said, and urged patience. The anxious council was told it will consider individual projects for state funding eventually, based on the criteria of:
“Does it fit with the [council’s] plan for its five-county region or not,” according to Duffy.
More than one way to skin a cat
At the heart of the tension Monday was the fact the council’s work could all be for nothing, as it must compete with nine regions for a finite amount of state money. Regions that “lose” this initial competition, for instance, receive a grab bag of just over $6 million in tax breaks and capital funds. Whether or not subsequent rounds of funding will be made available by the Cuomo administration for a half-decade strategy, stretched over a five-county expanse, is still unclear.
To confront their laundry list of to-do’s, both long and short term, the council must learn to multi-task well, says member Tom Kurcharski with the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise. He’s of the mind there will be a glut of Consolidated Funding Applications (CFA) - the “one-stop-shop” tool used to seek funding through the council - rolling in before an October 31st deadline. Those are currently coming in from businesses seeking state money from the council - most of which they will have to deny.
“Right now they’re concentrated in areas and sectors that are growing or are going through a transition. But with the fragile nature of the financial markets, a lot have been searching for assistance to get over the hump,” Kucharski says. “I hope that we don’t lose track of those projects, because there’s more than one way to skin a cat. Maybe those can go out to investors in other places that might find them particularly appealing.”
But while outside investment might be a worthy goal, Kucharski adds that the councils could be at risk of doing the legwork for investment firms with big pockets. The list of promising regional firms and ideas being compiled by the council could be fertile recruitment ground for investors in big hubs like Silicon Valley or Boston - leaving Western New York worse for wear.
Confusion and questions
Following the council meeting, local businesses were tutored on the CFA.
Duffy admits this new approach, which eliminates the unwieldy process of applying to each state economic development agency separately, is still perplexing, especially for newcomers.
“There’s a change involved here and we understand when there’s change there’s confusion, there’s questions, there’s concerns, [like], ‘Will I be funded, will I not be funded?’ So what the workshop will do is explain how the process works. In essence, this process makes it easier for applicants,” Duffy says.
Beginning November 1, the regional councils will review CFAs and score them according to a rubric provided by the Cuomo administration. Each application has a 100 point potential score and the councils are allowed 20 points of that total.
That one-fifth influence has been termed a “recommendation.” Councils are expected to recommend projects based on how well they tie-in to their five-year regional plan. But the ultimate decisions on projects will come from state agencies in Albany.
