An executive from the state-funded job incubation program known as START-UP NY was in Buffalo Wednesday to showcase some of the program's success stories, and answer the critics.
START-UP NY offers ten years of tax-free operation to new or relocating companies that work in partnership with local colleges and universities. The companies must move into zones near the schools and work with those institutions in ways consistent with their mission, and hire students from those schools.
Officials with the program say so far, it has created more than 3,300 jobs statewide among 121 participating companies. Nearly half of those jobs, officials add, are from 49 companies opening in Western New York under the program.
Critics, however, say START-UP NY, an initiative of the Cuomo Administration, spent more than $50 million last year on advertising alone, while not producing the same revenue in business growth.
Leslie Whatley, executive vice president of START-UP NY, says economic development does not bring instant gratification. She also explained while in Buffalo that out-of-state advertising was the way they could attract new business into new York State. She also told reporters following a roundtable discussion that most of START-UP NY's first year was spent creating the program from scratch, including training staff to be accountable with the dollars invested.
"I'm a business person. I'm trained to look at facts," Whatley said when asked about the program's critics, which include union-backed and politically conservative interests. "The noise to me, politics... I don't do politics. I do business."
Nearly a dozen colleges and universities throughout Western New York, led by the University at Buffalo, have START-UP NY affiliations in progress, while the statewide total is in excess of 70 and growing, say officials.
"We are a success. In a short period of time we've got 71 universities with approved plans," said Whatley. "We have another couple dozen in process. That's tremendous geographic diversity. Silicon Valley has one school, right now we're at 71."
