State leaders said workforce development and taxes are top issues for Chautauqua County. State Senator George Borrello and Assemblyman Andy Goodell addressed those issues at the Chautauqua Chamber of Commerce‘s annual Legislative Breakfast, which was held virtually on Friday.
When asked what the top three challenges facing Chautauqua County are, Senator Borrello said workforce needs to be our biggest focus,
“I think the fact that we lack the people with the skills to fill the jobs that are here, for the manufacturers and the other companies that are here. Even companies like Athenex which is now ramping up. Having the people who are going to fill those 450 jobs is going to be a challenge.”
Borrello says workforce is the number one issue for businesses looking to locate, relocate or expand.
He cited taxes as second top issue, saying that high taxes are driving businesses and people out of New York State,
“That’s a statewide problem but it particularly hits us here in Western New York particularly in Chautauqua County as we continue to try deal to with the challenges of infrastructure and everything else on top of that tax burden and our taxes.”
Borrello added realtors are seeing high interest in people moving to Chautauqua County from more urban areas and that we have challenges to overcome in order to make sure the area remains attractive,
“If the continued industrialization of our land with these boondoggle green energy projects is going to make this a less and less hospital place for those folks to want to relocate to. And then the challenges with infrastructure like broadband and our child care deserts that we have here throughout the area. Those are basic needs that we need to make sure we can fulfill.”
Assemblyman Goodell agreed that jobs and taxes are main concerns for the county. Goodell said with Federal monies flowing into the state, we won’t see tax increases here over the next year. He said, however, that the property tax cap enacted to cap tax increases is now an impediment to tax cuts,
“Because the tax cap says you can’t raise your taxes above 2% from last year’s tax levy. So a lot of municipalities are afraid to cut taxes because they might not be able to raise them again once this federal stimulus and all these funds come through. We need to provide more flexibility so we can cut taxes more.”
When it comes to jobs, Goodell said the state needs to be more competitive across the board to keep businesses here.
Leave a Reply