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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.

Do the new regional economic councils really matter?

This weekend the Innovation Trail and WMHT's New York NOWlooked into the governor's plan to revitalize the state's economy through the creation of ten regional economic development councils.

The councils will compete for a billion dollars worth of state funds, and the governor has said that there will be clear "winners and losers" among the state's regions. Tune in to find out why that has some people worried.

WMHT/Capital Region reporter for the Innovation Trail.
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