May 9, 2005

County Empire Zone to take time

This morning's Ithaca Journal doesn't mention Dryden, but there's some county news worth watching. While Tompkins County will have one eventually, final approval for an Empire Zone may not come for another four years. Why?

Each of the zones will be determined by economic need, and Tompkins County's healthy economy could mean a zone won't appear here for a few years.

"It really favors the communities that prove they have greater economic need than the others," Stamm told the IDA. "It could put us in a bad position."

While I recognize that there economic development to be done all over the state, it does seem like Empire Zones have been watered down to be a general business tax break program rather than the targeted improvements for the places most in need of help it was originally planned to be. I'll also be curious to see where in Tompkins County the Empire Zone acreage ends up, though it sounds like I'll be waiting a while.

On the opinion page, Gannett columnist Jay Gallagher looks at the current stalemate over voting machines and suggests that dysfunction is alive and well in Albany.

Also, today's paper opinion page seems to lack letters entirely, with two longer guest columns instead. I'm not sure what's up at the Journal, but they seem to be publishing a lot fewer letters generally. I can't say that seems like a good idea to me.

Posted by simon at May 9, 2005 8:52 AM in , ,
Note on photos