$500 million: That's the pot of gold Schoharie County and five nearby counties may be sharing for economic development.
But getting that money--if it comes at all--may be difficult.
The money is likely to be available under Governor Andrew Cuomo's New York State Opportunity Agenda and the Upstate Revitalization Fund.
The Governor has set aside $1.5 billion for the upstate fund. Under his plan, which still must be approved by the legislature, the $1.5 billion will be split into three shares of $500 million.
Seven upstate regional economic development councils will compete for the three pots of $500 million--as the plan stands now, at least.
County Treasurer Bill Cherry, who's handling economic development, has had opening talks with representatives from Fulton, Montgomery, Herkimer, Oneida and Otsego, the five other Mohawk Valley council members.
A successful proposal, Mr. Cherry said, should show full cooperation among the member counties and also demonstrate "thinking outside the box" about how the project may relate to the rest of the state.
Mr. Cherry believes the Mohawk Valley proposal will focus on the area's central location. It's not far from Albany, Binghamton, Syracuse and Rochester and is at the crossroads of I-88 and I-90.
"We shouldn't just be a rest stop on the way to those places," Mr. Cherry said. "We should be a link in the chain."
He surmised that the Mohawk Valley plan should propose to invest most of the $500 million to attract a huge employer.
"Geographically, we're in a perfect spot," he said. "They'd be an hour or half-hour away from their markets. Why not come here?"
While most of the $500 million might go towards drawing a large employer, smaller amounts would go to each county for their projects, Mr. Cherry imagined.
"Put all those smaller projects together, and they fit into the plan of economic development," he said.
As proposed by Governor Cuomo, the plan calls for competition among the seven regional councils because the competition will generate innovative ideas.
There's a possibility, however, that the legislature may want to divide the $1.5 billion evenly among the seven regional councils, Mr. Cherry said.
"But I think the Governor feels that if there's no competition, nobody has to work for it," he said.
"We're not sure how it will play out."
Although there's no firm schedule of when Albany will act on the plan, Mr. Cherry believed it would be this summer.
The $1.5 billion is part of the settlement of a lawsuit the state brought against major investment banks after the 2007-08 meltdown.