Republican candidate for governor Rob Astorino was in Oswego Tuesday to meet with supporters, including Assemblyman Will Barclay, to discuss his plans for office if elected. One of the many topics he covered was the need to regrow the upstate economy, including leveraging the region's residents and location to help spur economic development.
"You have a wonderful port here," Astorino said. "You have a wonderful Great Lake. You have people here who are educated and want to go to work. The problem is they're leaving this state to find that work and they're not coming home. And that's what we need to do is to set up a business climate here."
Astorino says he wants to completely revamp New York's business climate, including the governor's Start-Up NY program.
"You know, the governor has got it all wrong," Astorino explained. "Picking and choosing some winners that are only high-tech, only on a SUNY campus, is not how we're going to grow this state, because who am I to say what the next great idea is from somebody right here in Oswego. They wouldn't qualify, and you know what? They would take their idea and they would probably leave New York state to do it somewhere else."
Astorino also says manufacturing, which has been on the decline in central New York in recent decades, could thrive again. But the county executive believes job creation is being stalled by the state itself because of hundreds of thousands of regulations on the books and high taxes. Astorino says the state could also benefit from allowing hydrofracking to happen in certain areas of the state, which he says 30 states are currently doing safely.
With about seven weeks to go before the general election, Astorino still lags in the polls by double digits compared to his Democratic opponent, Gov. Andrew Cuomo. The governor also holds a major advantage over Astorino in terms of campaign funds available.
