[On Sept. 30], I along with CenterState CEO staff and several members, attended the Town of Clay Board and Planning Board joint public hearing on the proposed project to develop a 3.7-million-square-foot warehouse and distribution facility in the town. During the meeting, Andrew Fish, senior VP, and I went on record to voice CenterState CEO’s strongest possible support for the project. Additionally, CenterState CEO has submitted formal letters of support to the Town of Clay Board, Town of Clay Planning Board, and the Onondaga County Industrial Development Agency. 

We have long advocated for and pursued opportunities to attract a major warehouse and logistics facility to the region. In more than two decades, there has not been a single project within our region with this level of private-sector investment. The project — with its proposal to employ more than 1,000 people with an annual average payroll of about $30 million — holds the potential to create significant economic impact for our regional economy, with countless opportunities for local businesses to benefit from this massive investment.

As you are keenly aware, issues of unemployment and poverty limit our region from realizing its true economic potential. If we are to truly confront and alter the root causes of these persistent challenges, then we must fully embrace and support projects like this that create meaningful employment opportunities for those often disconnected from the workforce. 

This project also plays directly to our region’s infrastructure strengths, and is situated along a corridor with some of the region’s most successful warehouse and distribution assets.

Additionally, this project advances regional strategies outlined in Central New York’s Upstate Revitalization Initiative that call for aligning job demand with available workers, addressing the skills gap, creating access to opportunity by locating jobs in proximity to public transit, and investing in the logistics and distribution industry. The proposed site is situated along Centro bus routes, and the majority of the proposed jobs will have a low-barrier to entry, enhancing the ability of more of our region’s available workforce to directly benefit from these employment opportunities, and to contribute to a thriving regional economy.        

Robert M. (Rob) Simpson is president and CEO of CenterState CEO, the primary economic-development organization for Central New York. This viewpoint is drawn and edited from the “CEO Focus” email newsletter that the organization sent to members on Oct. 3. 

Spend like tomorrow is just another day. 

Our nation faces gigantic debt and unbalanced budgets for decades to come. 

Let us consider that over-spending. Do you imagine Congress might ever, ever, spend less than what comes in? What are you smoking? You must also imagine that all student drinking is legal.

Congress and students behave the way they do for the same reason: They can. I will come back to that thought.

Congress behaves as did a couple who asked me to play Dutch Uncle for them. (I was their financial advisor.) They were spendthrifts. They had declared bankruptcy twice. They were about to declare again.

Their last bankruptcy judge absolutely prohibited them from using credit cards. But they were now using credit cards — under the name of the man’s brother, behaving like students with fake IDs. They were addicted to spending. Like the people we elect to Congress.

I asked whether their income had gone up over the years. Yes, it had. Many times. But every time they got raises, they upped their spending. It was as if they had a simple budget process. They calculated what their income would be. They then laid out plans to spend more than their income.

This sounds like our dear Congress, doesn’t it? Let us make that stronger. This is our Congress.

Congress recently got a raise, so to speak. Revenues streaming into Washington, D.C. rose 3.4 percent. That should spark a celebration.

Hey, we voted in a tax cut. Like most tax cuts, it revved up the economy. The revved-up economy generated more revenue. Even in the short-term, it did. Even so-called “evil” corporations paid 5 percent more than last year. In 11 months Washington took in $102 billion more than it did the previous 11 months. Remarkable. Let us break out the bubbly.

Congress did. And the bubbly went to their heads. Congresspeople increased spending by 6.4 percent. Yes, they saw $102 billion more come in. They spent all that $102 billion, plus another $169 billion. This is like the bankrupt couple celebrating their $10,000 raise by booking a $25,000 vacation. (Note: I drew the Washington figures from John Merline’s article in Issues & Insights, a terrific online editorial page.)

To be fair, much of the spending increase came from our big entitlement programs like Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid. But Congress is also too cowardly to rein in or reform such programs.

And to be further fair, they ramped up their defense spending by 7.9 percent. And they juiced up all their other spending by 4.5 percent.

The truth is that Congress is a spendthrift. No different than the bankrupt couple I advised.

Why won’t our politicians curtail spending? Why do they celebrate pay raises by blowing the raises and a hell of a lot more?

Simple. They overspend because they can. No one holds them to account. And, they can always squeeze more out of us. With a few new taxes.

This is so easy for them to do. Are you going to notice if they raise the tax on gasoline by five cents? Nah.

But Tom, the deficit is massive. And the debt they have piled up is mountainous. Where could Congress possibly find such immense amounts? Surely these figures must give politicians nightmares?

Right. Politicians never suffer nightmares. They experience pleasant dreams. Such as a tax on internet traffic. Such as carbon taxes. Those two alone would swamp Washington with new revenue.

Why there would be so much new money coming into Washington the politicians could hardly find ways to spend it all.

On the other hand, that really is a dream. As well as a nightmare.

From Tom…as in Morgan.                 

Tom Morgan writes about political, financial, and other subjects from his home in upstate New York. You can write to Tom at tomasinmorgan@yahoo.com, read more of his writing at tomasinmorgan.com, or find him on Facebook.