Upstate needs help, not exodus, leaders say
Trump comment draws rebukes but also recognition of problems
Some local elected officials say President Donald Trump should help New York state create a more favorable climate for businesses and residents rather than tell upstaters to move away to find work.
In an interview Tuesday, the Republican president told the Wall Street Journal that upstate New Yorkers need to move where there are jobs. He made the comment after he said Foxconn Technology Group would build a large plant in Wisconsin.
The Wisconsin location reportedly beat out New York state for the project.
“You’re going to need people to work in these massive plants,” Trump told the Journal. “... I’m going to start explaining to people: When you
have an area that just isn’t working, like upper New York state, where people are getting very badly hurt, and then you’ll have another area 500 miles away where you can’t get people, I’m going to explain, you can leave. It’s OK. Don’t worry about your house.”
On Thursday, state Sen. George Amedore said he didn’t like the president’s commentary but agreed upstate communities are struggling.
“We have a high cost of living and doing business that continues to drive people to leave the state,” Amedore, R-Rotterdam, said in a prepared statement. “But we are also fortunate to be surrounded by some of the most beautiful natural resources in the world right here in the Hudson Valley and throughout the state. I have faith that with the proper policies to help relieve the burdens on residents and businesses and create a more favorable climate, we can continue to move our upstate communities in the right direction. What I’d like to hear from the president is how he’s going to work with us to accomplish that.”
Dutchess County Executive Marcus Molinaro, also a Republican, said from what he’d read, Trump was referring to the loss of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.
“Then, yes, Dutchess County experienced in the early ’90s that very crisis,” Molinaro said, referring to the period when IBM downsized dramatically in the Mid-Hudson Valley. “The mass exodus of manufacturing and manufacturing jobs.”
Molinaro said Dutchess County has yet to fully recover but that he doesn’t necessarily agree people need to move to find jobs.
New York leads the nation in “outward migration” and needs to address the high costs of doing business and of living, Molinaro said. He said the state has to take responsibility for that first, but he would hope the president and federal government would be a partner to take on that challenge.
“I want people to stay,” Molinaro said. “I want them to invest. I want them to have hope that there will be opportunity for them and their families.”
Ulster County Executive Michael Hein, a Democrat, questioned how the public could expect better from Trump when he is willing to take health care away from tens of millions
Safier also said good, livable houses going on the market at decent prices are getting multiple offers from buyers, which is indicative of the health of the region.
of people and seems to have no understanding of what discrimination is. Hein said upstate New York is a beautiful place and the focus should be on bringing in real economic activity.
“The idea that we would pit one portion of the country against another simply exemplifies the divisive nature of his behavior,” Hein said of Trump. He said the real answer is to have everyone work collaboratively to help them all succeed.
U.S. Rep. John Faso, when asked about the president’s comments, also pointed to the number of people leaving New York state.
“This is because state leaders like Governor [Andrew] Cuomo are more interested in defending the status quo and paying for light shows on the George Washington Bridge than pursuing reforms to foster economic prosperity for individuals and businesses,” Faso, R-Kinderhook, said in a prepared statement.
The congressman said the state has among the highest in property taxes in the nation and ranks 49th in business climate, which forces people out of the communities in which they grew up.
As for Trump’s “don’t worry about your house” comment, Harris Safier, president of the Ulster County Board of Realtors, said he could not imagine what the president was referring to but noted the comment was made in a “cavalier, off-handed fashion.”
“The reality is our region is doing really well now,” Safier said. “We also have the challenges of bringing new employment into the area, but it’s my assertion ... that our area has a lifestyle that draws people and has now got a full swing of movement of young people coming into the area.”
Safier also said good, livable houses going on the market at decent prices are getting multiple offers from buyers, which is indicative of the health of the region.