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: “We weathered it all”
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,” he said. “That isn’t a recipe for economic success.”
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.
