Lockheed Martin Owego awarded $64 million Air Force contract

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OWEGO, N.Y. — Lockheed Martin Corp.’s (NYSE: LMT) Owego plant has been awarded a nearly $64.3 million supply contract for F-16 foreign military sales mission planning. This eight-year contract provides for the development, integration, test, and delivery of the Joint Mission Planning System Unique Planning Component/Mission Planning Environment software updates, according to a Jan. 29 […]

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Lockheed Martin to pay first-quarter dividend in late March

Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only, Technology

Lockheed Martin Corp. (NYSE: LMT) recently announced that its board of directors has authorized a first-quarter 2021 dividend of $2.60 per share. The dividend is payable on March 26, to shareholders of record as of the close of business on March 1. At Lockheed’s current stock price, the dividend yields nearly 3.2 percent on an

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New York egg production edges up in December

Manufacturing & Engineering, Subscriber Only

New York farms produced 150.5 million eggs in December, up 0.2 percent from 150.2 million eggs in the year-ago period, the USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently reported. The number of layers in the Empire State averaged nearly 5.86 million in December, up 1.4 percent from 5.78 million layers a year prior. December egg

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In December, Onondaga County hotel occupancy fell more than 30 percent

Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

SYRACUSE — Just over one-fourth of hotel rooms in Onondaga County, on average, were occupied by guests in December, as the COVID-19 pandemic continued to stifle the travel and the hospitality industry. The hotel occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) in the county was 27.2 percent in December, down 32.4 percent

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Launch NY invests more than $2M in 32 companies during 2020

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, New York News, Nonprofits, Small Business, Subscriber Only, Technology

BUFFALO, N.Y. — Launch NY worked with more than 175 investors to deliver $2.23 million to 32 companies through its #InvestLocal community. Its effort during 2020 “pushed the venture-development organization to over $5 million in lifetime investments,” the organization said in a Jan. 25 news release. Launch NY’s #InvestLocal financing programs in 2020 provided seed

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BUFFALO, N.Y. — Launch NY worked with more than 175 investors to deliver $2.23 million to 32 companies through its #InvestLocal community.

Its effort during 2020 “pushed the venture-development organization to over $5 million in lifetime investments,” the organization said in a Jan. 25 news release.

Launch NY’s #InvestLocal financing programs in 2020 provided seed capital for Central New York companies that included CathBuddy, Inc. and Promptous, Inc., both of which are members of the Syracuse Tech Garden.

Southern Tier firms that benefitted included Dimensional Energy, Inc., Ecolectro, Inc., Exotanium Inc., and ShrubBucket, all of Ithaca; Ellicottville Greens LLC in Western New York; and Iterate Labs, Inc. (formerly OrthoFit), which has a leadership team that includes Cornell University graduates.

Buffalo–based Launch NY describes itself as the “first and only” nonprofit venture-development organization that provides the 27 westernmost counties in New York with pro-bono mentoring. It says it helped companies access COVID-relief funding programs and “critical and unique” seed-funding programs.

Besides its Buffalo headquarters, Launch NY has co-locations with partner organizations in Syracuse, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Rochester.

“On March 13, 2020 — not even at the end of Q1 — life as we knew it changed overnight due to the pandemic,” Marnie LaVigne, president and CEO of Launch NY, said. “While other entrepreneurial programs, dependent on in-person events and incubator facilities, were put on hold, our regional delivery of services and funding that already leveraged remote communications quickly grew to fully virtual interactions.”

LaVigne said both grew because the investment community rallied to help fuel companies solving new market needs while driving jobs to counter the devastating hit to the local economy.

Launch NY’s #InvestLocal financing programs were built around its nonprofit seed fund. It was designed to “catalyze startups with the little publicized, but crucial ‘first money in,’ typically ranging from $25,000 to $100,000,” per its release.

“At a time when the only predictable thing was unpredictability, we’re celebrating the adaptability and perseverance of our regional economic community who worked hand-in-hand with our team to keep driving forward our mission of inclusive economic prosperity through high-growth entrepreneurship,” LaVigne said. “I am confident that we’ll see this same resilience, collaborative spirit and positive impact in 2021.”

SugEx Wins SU Campus 2021 ACC InVenture Prize Competition

Health Care, Subscriber Only, Technology

SYRACUSE, N.Y. — Syracuse University students Russell Fearon and Ricardo Sanchez were the grand-prize winners of the Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at the 2021 Syracuse University (SU) campus qualifier for the Atlantic Coast Conference (ACC) InVenture Prize. SU Libraries put on the event virtually on Jan. 29. Fearon (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and

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SU Libraries put on the event virtually on Jan. 29. Fearon (College of Engineering and Computer Science) and Sanchez (College of Visual and Performing Arts) earned a $5,000 cash prize, sponsored by M&T Bank, and will now move on to participate virtually in a PBS-televised event in April. The ACC InVenture finals feature a $30,000 prize package and will be hosted virtually by North Carolina State University. Fearon and Sanchez’ invention, SugEx, is an “innovative” device and mobile app designed to better monitor glucose levels for people with pre-, Type 1, and Type 2 diabetes, Syracuse University Libraries said.

“We started in the Invent@SU accelerator as undergraduates and immediately began working with the tenacious team in the LaunchPad who incubate amazing entrepreneurs,” said Fearon, co-founder and CEO of SugEx. The SugEx team developed an initial prototype in the Invent@SU program for a wearable glucose monitoring device, based on Fearon’s own experience discovering he had diabetes while in college. They worked with the LaunchPad on a commercialization roadmap and along the way won a number of accolades, including a national health innovation award from the American Heart Association.

The SugEx team has now won more than $60,000 for the invention in various competitions.

Fearon is now finishing his master’s degree in bioengineering and biomedical engineering after receiving his undergraduate degree in mechanical engineering at Syracuse University. Sanchez, co-founder and CTO of SugEx, is a fifth-year industrial and interaction design student at SU.

The Blackstone LaunchPad & Techstars at Syracuse University Libraries is the university’s innovation hub. The program serves faculty, staff, students, and alumni across disciplines who are interested in innovation, invention, entrepreneurship, venture creation, careers, entrepreneurial skills, diversity, equity, inclusion, and taking ideas from concept to commercialization.

Oneida County hotels see fewer than three in 10 rooms occupied in December

Regional News, Sports, Entertainment & Tourism, Subscriber Only

UTICA, N.Y. — Oneida County hotels posted an occupancy rate (rooms sold as a percentage of rooms available) of 28.4 percent in December, down 31.5 percent from a year ago, according to STR, a Tennessee–based hotel market data and analytics company. It was the largest year-over-year decline in occupancy in the county since July as

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NBT Bank profit rises 15 percent in fourth quarter

Banks & Credit Unions, Insurance & Financial Services, Subscriber Only

NORWICH, N.Y. — NBT Bancorp, Inc. (NASDAQ: NBTB) recently reported that its net income rose more than 15 percent to $34.2 million, or 78 cents a share, in the fourth quarter from just under $29 million, or 66 cents, in the year-ago period. Higher net interest income and a lower provision for loan losses, partly

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Higher net interest income and a lower provision for loan losses, partly offset by branch-optimization charges, led the increase, NBT Bancorp, parent of NBT Bank, said in its Jan. 27 earnings report. Excluding branch-optimization charges for the quarter of $4.1 million, NBT said its net income and earnings per share were $37.4 million and 85 cents a share, respectively.

NBT’s net income for the full-year 2020 was $104.4 million, or $2.37 per share, down almost 14 percent from $121 million, or $2.74 a share in the prior year. That was due primarily to a higher provision for loan losses after the adoption of the current expected credit losses (CECL) accounting methodology and the worsening economic conditions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, the banking company explained.

Excluding full-year branch-optimization charges of $4.8 million, net income and earnings per share were $108.1 million and $2.46 a share, respectively, it added.

“NBT ended the year with active pipelines and building momentum. Our strong capital base provides us with the optionality we need to drive our growth in 2021,” NBT President and CEO John H. Watt, Jr. said in the earnings report. “The strength of NBT’s pre-provision net revenue and our outsized noninterest income is reflected in our results for the full year and the fourth quarter of 2020. As we continue to navigate these challenging times and look to the future, our team is customer focused and committed to executing the critical strategies that will carry us forward.”

NBT had total loans of $7.5 billion as of Dec. 31, up from $7.1 billion a year ago.

The banking company’s Paycheck Protection Program loans as of Dec. 31, 2020 totaled $431 million (net of unamortized fees), with $548 million originated at an average loan size of $184,000 and an average annual fee of 3.2 percent.

Net charge-offs to average loans were low due to COVID-19 pandemic-relief programs for the quarter and 2020, NBT said. Net charge-offs to total average loans were 0.23 percent for 2020, compared to 0.36 percent for 2019.

NBT Bancorp is a financial holding company based in Norwich, with total assets of $10.9 billion as of Dec. 31. The company primarily operates through NBT Bank, N.A., a full-service community bank and via two financial-services companies. NBT Bank has 141 branches in New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and Maine, and is currently entering Connecticut. EPIC Retirement Plan Services, based in Rochester, is a full-service 401(k) plan recordkeeping firm. NBT Insurance Agency, LLC, based in Norwich, is a full-service insurance agency.

VIEWPOINT: NYS DOL Indefinitely Cancels Unemployment-Insurance Charges

Business Mentors, Insurance & Financial Services, New York News, Subscriber Only

On Jan. 14, 2021, New York State Department of Labor (DOL) Commissioner Roberta Reardon signed an order to temporarily modify the unemployment-benefit charging system and ease the burden for unemployment-insurance charges incurred by all employers during the COVID-19 pandemic. The order provides that all unemployment benefits paid out to claimants since March 9, 2020 will be charged

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The order provides that all unemployment benefits paid out to claimants since March 9, 2020 will be charged against New York State’s general unemployment-insurance account and will not be attributed to individual employers until further notice. The order also cancels all charges made against employers’ accounts since March 9 across the board —regardless of whether the employer pays unemployment-insurance taxes based on an experience rating or uses the benefit-reimbursement model.

From a practical perspective, this means that employers’ experience ratings should not be impacted by the influx of unemployment claims they experienced due to the pandemic, though it is unclear if they will still have to pay some amount of unemployment-insurance taxes.

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act) already provided 50-percent relief to self-insured nonprofits, government agencies, and Native American tribes for unemployment charges incurred between March 13 and Dec. 31, 2020. This order provides these employers with reimbursement for the other 50 percent of the charges they incurred over that period. It further provides that future charges that would otherwise be charged against their accounts under normal circumstances will instead be charged to the general account until further notice.

While the New York State DOL has not elaborated on the method of reimbursement it will provide self-insured nonprofits, government agencies, and Native American tribes —for the 50-percent relief under the CARES Act or the retroactive 50-percent relief provided under this order — it will likely take the form of a credit against future unemployment-insurance benefit charges. Regardless of the method of reimbursement, employers who subscribe to the benefit-reimbursement model will ultimately receive complete relief for the unemployment charges they incurred from March 9, 2020 until the DOL rescinds this order and begins to charge employers for unemployment-insurance benefits again.

Employers who receive charge statements, bills, and other documents from the DOL may continue to protest claims and alert them to fraudulent claims for benefits and should consult with counsel to ensure they are meeting their obligations and confirm whether any future payment is due.

Paul J. Buehler III is an associate attorney in the Albany office of Syracuse¬–based law firm Bond, Schoeneck & King PLLC. Contact him at pbuehler@bsk.com

Most CNY jobless rates remained higher in December

Employee Benefits & Human Resources, Subscriber Only

CNY shed more than 34,000 jobs in last year Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Watertown–Fort Drum, Binghamton, and Elmira regions remained in single-digit figures in December and most were higher compared to a year ago amid the effects of layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic. The jobless rate

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CNY shed more than 34,000 jobs in last year

Unemployment rates in the Syracuse, Utica–Rome, Watertown–Fort Drum, Binghamton, and Elmira regions remained in single-digit figures in December and most were higher compared to a year ago amid the effects of layoffs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The jobless rate for the Watertown–Fort Drum area was lower than the figure from the same month in 2019. The data was part of the latest New York State Department of Labor data released Jan. 26.

In addition, the Syracuse and Utica–Rome regions lost jobs in five-digit figures between December 2019 and this past December.

At the same time, the Watertown–Fort Drum, Binghamton, Ithaca, and Elmira metro areas lost jobs in four-digit figures in the same period.

That’s according to the latest monthly employment report that the New York State Department of Labor issued Jan. 21.

Regional unemployment rates

The jobless rate in the Syracuse area was 6.4 percent in December, up from 4.5 percent in December 2019.

The Utica–Rome region’s unemployment rate hit 6.4 percent, up from 4.7 percent a year prior; the Watertown–Fort Drum area’s number was 6.3 percent, down from 6.9 percent; the Binghamton region’s rate rose to 6.2 percent from 4.9 percent; the Ithaca area’s jobless number reached 4.3 percent from 3.3 percent; and the unemployment rate in the Elmira region was 6.7 percent in December, up from 4.5 percent in the same month a year ago.

The local-unemployment data isn’t seasonally adjusted, meaning the figures don’t reflect seasonal influences such as holiday hires.

The unemployment rates are calculated following procedures prescribed by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, the state Labor Department said.

State unemployment rate

New York state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate was 8.2 percent in December, down from 8.4 percent in November, according to preliminary figures released by the New York State Department of Labor.

The number of unemployed New Yorkers also decreased over the month, by 20,200, from 764,500 to 744,300. This represents the fifth straight month of declining unemployment rates in New York State, “bucking the national trend,” the state Labor Department said.

However, the 8.2 percent unemployment rate was higher than the U.S. jobless rate of 6.7 percent in December. It was also significantly higher than the 3.9 percent state unemployment rate in December 2019, according to department figures.

The federal government calculates New York’s unemployment rate partly based upon the results of a monthly telephone survey of 3,100 state households that the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts.

December jobs data

The Syracuse region lost more than 34,000 jobs in the past year, representing a decrease of 10.6 percent.

The Utica–Rome metro area lost more than 10,000 jobs, a drop of 8 percent; the Watertown–Fort Drum region shed nearly 4,000 jobs, a decrease of 9 percent; the Binghamton area lost 6,600 jobs, a decline of 6 percent; the Ithaca region shed 3,000 jobs, a decrease of 5 percent; and the Elmira area lost more than 2,000 jobs, a drop of about 6 percent.

New York state as a whole lost more than 1 million jobs, a decrease of 10 percent, in that 12-month period. The state economy also lost more than 37,000 jobs, a 0.4 percent decrease, between November and December of 2020, the labor department said.

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