Senator Defrancisco Represents State Senate at Governor's Regional Council Awards Ceremony

State Senator John A. DeFrancisco (R-I-C, Albany), Governor Andrew Cuomo, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver joined together in praising the winners of the 2012 New York Works Regional Economic Development Council Awards in Albany today (12/19/12).

"I am honored to represent the New York State Senate and Central New York for this very important economic development announcement, and I was proud to stand with Central New York representatives as they were awarded $93.8 Million as a top performer," said Senator John A. DeFrancisco.

"Last year, Upstate New York significantly benefited from the work of the Regional Councils. In fact, in the first round of awards last year, three of the four winners were Upstate regions, including Central New York," said Senator DeFrancisco.

"The Senate has been proud to partner with the Governor throughout this process, and many of my colleagues and I have been involved at the local level," said Senator DeFrancisco.

These awards, combined with the efforts of the Governor and the Senate to establish a property tax cap and to cut taxes and red tape for businesses, have helped create thousands of new jobs across the state.

The Regional Council initiative is a successful business model for New York – a bottom-up approach that allows those in the region who best understand their regional economies to guide public investments. These public investments help to leverage additional private funds to revive local communities.

This has been accomplished through hard work and unprecedented collaboration with private public partnerships, but New York has taken the lead and gone the extra step by ensuring all parties have a seat at the table: academia, labor, private businesses, not for profits and all levels of government.

"Together we are building a New York that we can be proud of, one where our children will want to live, work and raise a family," concluded Senator DeFrancisco.

A list of winners in today’s awards ceremony are:

Finger Lakes – $96.2 million

Central NY – $93.8 million

Mid-Hudson Valley - $92.8 million

Southern Tier – $91.1 million

North Country – $90.2 million

Long Island – $59.7 million

Mohawk Valley – $59.7 million

Western NY – $52.8 million

New York City – $51.4 million

Capital Region – $50.3 million