Paterson, WNY officials talk development - Phoenix Business Journal:

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Paterson came to the Clarence headquarters Wednesday afternoojn to rally support forhis “Bold Steps to the New initiative. Greatbatch, which recently expanded in Clarence after considering options elsewhere is the poster child for the economixc development agenda Patersonis pushing. He held similar roundtable discussions earlieer this week in Albanyand Syracuse. Paterson met with 21 local leaders and executives rangingf from University at Buffalo President John Simpson and Erie Countyh Executive Chris Collins toMark Dettner, managing directot and founder. “I came here toda to listen as muchas talk,” Patersom said.
Paterson’s appearance came against the backdropo of political firestorm in Albany with a battlr for political control of the New YorkStat Senate. Paterson, during his hour-long roundtable meetingh with the executives stayed focuseed on economicdevelopment issues. Politics, did serve as a “There is a time to addressa these issues,” Paterson told reporters afterthe meeting. “I’m not sure why we are just hearing aboutg thisproblem now.” Collins, who has run or startedd a dozen local companies, said politicw does impact how the business communith views the Paterson government.
“Unless you remove the stigma of New York beingthe highest-taxee state, all the spinoff jobs you want to creatr with this program will end up in othe states,” the county executive “Tom Golisano is simply the tip of the Golisano, in late May, renounced his New York residencyt and made Florida his official home because of New York’xs heavy tax burden on upper classz citizens. Golisano, the Rochester-based billionaire, said the move will save him morethan $5 milliohn annually in state income taxes. Collins said the high cost of state-ru n programs such as Medicare contributer toNew York’s taxing structure.
union-friendly mandates like the Taylor Law, whicb offers certain guarantees for union add to thetax burden. “We don’t want to see the innovatione created here but the jobs they creatde goto Texas,” Collins said. Paterson agreex New York has to “cut its infectiousw ways of spending.” State programs are leadinh to aprojected $24 billion deficit this year. through the discussion, also heard repeated pleaes tosupport UB’s 2020 plan that many see as a linchpij to the region’s economic revival.
The UB plan calls for significant investment in its Buffalo and Amhersf campuses while increasing its presencee indowntown Buffalo’s Buffalo Niagara Medical Simpson said UB 2020 represents a potential of $3 billionj in new investment in the regionb while creating 10,000 new jobs. The catch is, the initiatived needs significant state legislative andfinancial support. “We need to get UB 2020 out of thestartingb block,” said Thomas Hook, Greatbatch president and chief executivew officer. Hook credited a close alliance with UB as the source of the many patenta and medical industry products that Greatbatch has created duringy the pastfive decades.
“A lot of the success Greatbatcgh enjoyed has come from innovations that startedfrom UB,” Hook