Statement from Senator Catharine M. Young, 57th Senate District

“Today we received the devastating news that Erie County manufacturer New Era Cap will close its Derby plant in March, putting over 200 workers out on the street.

Contrast this with today’s news from the other side of the state, that Long Island City in Queens will become the site of one of Amazon’s highly publicized “HQ2” operations.  

Touted as a “win” by the Governor and New York City officials, it comes at a high price: a staggering $1.525 billion dollars, the largest financial incentive in state history, and all for a global corporate giant valued at nearly $1 trillion.

Overburdened New York taxpayers, particularly those in upstate who are seeing their communities and families decimated by job losses and lack of opportunity, have every right to be outraged by this massive giveaway.

In Western New York, the unemployment rate in many counties hovers around 4.2 percent, far higher than the statewide rate of 3.8 percent. Our hardworking dairy farmers are seeing their farms and futures disappear before their eyes.  And a still-declining manufacturing base and cutbacks in other industries are continuing to drive record numbers of upstate residents to other areas of the country.

Strong, strategic economic development efforts can be nothing short of transformative when properly deployed. Upstate New York desperately needs such a transformation to assure its long-term survival. 

That recognition should be the guiding force in our economic development policies. Instead, we are “celebrating” an enormous gift to a corporate giant that does not need it, to locate in a region of the state where job opportunities are plentiful. The winner in this deal isn’t New York and it certainly isn’t the taxpayers.”