What could we do with $500 million?
That's the question the MV500 Project has been asking since January, when Governor Andrew Cuomo first unveiled his $1.5 billion Upstate Revitalization Initiative.
Intended to encourage economic development, the URI divides upstate New York into seven regions, all competing for three $500 million prizes.
Along with Fulton, Herkimer, Montgomery, Oneida, Otsego Counties, Schoharie County is part of the Mohawk Valley region for the initiative; MV500 spokesman Alicia Dicks gave an update of their efforts Thursday at SUNY Cobleskill.
The Governor's proposal seeks a "long-term vision with a unified approach," Mr. Dicks, president and CEO of The Community Foundation of Herkimer & Oneida Counties, said.
The deadline for the region plans has been pushed back from July till the fall-when the $1.5 billion was originally expected to be awarded, so it's unclear when the winners in what some have called Governor Cuomo's Hunger Games will be named.
The competition between the seven regions is already intense, Ms. Dicks said, and she deliberately kept MV500's strategy vague-in case any of her competitors were in Thursday's crowd of about 30 people.
"It's our secret sauce," she said of the plan.
The process, Ms. Dicks said, began with big ideas, which were then throttled back to what's reasonable.
Unity is paramount, she said, and the counties in the Mohawk Valley region are all rural with lots of Main Streets, have good resources, infrastructure, talent, and educational assets.
"We don't want to spend time on what's broken," she said, and also we have to stop waiting for some big answer to land in our backyard with lots of jobs."
What's reasonable for the Mohawk Valley region, she said, focuses on technology and not just STEM, but STEAM: Science, technology, engineering, arts, and math.
"We want this plan to be stellar, we want it to pop, and we want it to be the best," Ms. Dicks said.
The Governor's awards will require a 1:5 match from the winners.