POUGHKEEPSIE – Dutchess business leaders
who missed last month’s 2015 State of the County address by County
Executive Marcus Molinaro at the Culinary Institute got a bite-sized taste
Wednesday morning, when he recapped key points at the Dutchess County
Regional Chamber of Commerce breakfast.
The second-helping presentation focused primarily on economic issues.
Molinaro acknowledged the county has weathered significant economic conditions
over the last eight years, including 60 percent increase in social service
caseload, 70 percent increase in mental health caseload, and 23 percent
reduction in assessed valuation.
“Yet, we weathered it all,” Molinaro said, noting the largest
tax levy reduction in 14 years, and smallest workforce in 34 years.
“We’re finally beginning to stabilize and not dismantle county
government in order to respond to economic conditions and unfunded state
mandates,” he indicated.
Tourism is a much more than a mere factor in Dutchess County revitalization,
Molinaro said. “It is a statement of who we are, and how we hope
to live. Tourism is about us, the very celebration of ourselves,”
he said.
The county uses tourism to brand itself, “to say to the rest of
the world that we have something to offer; and to remind that we are a
strong and vibrant community, we are celebrating, and that we have great
success still to achieve,” Molinaro said.
Among the current investment projects in Dutchess, Molinaro touched upon
$96 million, 1,200 job facility in Fishkill for The Gap; numerous college
construction projects; Dutchess County Airport infrastructure improvements,
and IBM’s new Z-13 mainframe system, worth $1 billion. He called
the growth “moderate but steady.”
The Dutchess Economic Development Corporation will be disbanded and quasi-privatized
into a reformed Industrial Development Agency, unlike anything in the
region, Molinaro said. “Sadly, it is no longer necessary, the public
authority spending most of its time reporting to the New York State public
authorities’ office. That isn’t a recipe for economic success,”
he said.
In order to include other stakeholders, the new IDA will be steered and
evaluated by an Economic Development Advisory Council, including the Dutchess
Regional Chamber of Commerce. “No one can help grow existing businesses
better than the Chamber,” Molinaro said.
