EDITORIAL: Assist the State’s Storm Victims

Assist the State’s Storm Victims

Flood relief is an appropriate use for economic development funds

Source: Buffalo News Editorial

Brian Kolb may be onto something. The Assembly minority leader suggested this week that Albany cut into its new economic development fund to help rebuild communities that were laid low by the torrential remnants of Hurricane Irene.

Kolb, a Republican from Canandaigua, said Albany should divert one-quarter of the new $200 million economic development fund to help in recovery from the storm that took upstate by surprise. He didn’t mention it at the time — because it hadn’t happened — but the remnants of Tropical Storm Lee have added a new layer of misery to parts of the Northeast, including parts of upstate New York.

Estimates are that Irene did more than$1 billion worth of damage from the mid-Hudson Valley to the Adirondacks. Lee will add to the sum of destruction.

It’s a crisis that demands immediate action and, in a time of state revenue shortfalls, that calls for creative use of funds to help these areas recover.Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo last week said that most recovery costs would be borne by the private sector, but government must look for ways to ease the pain.

“Everyone is going to have to do their part at the end of the day,” the governor said.

He’s right, of course, but Kolb’s idea would allow the state to do more than it could otherwise. It’s an appropriate diversion of funds to alleviate suffering and disruption caused by catastrophic events.

The fund was created this year as part of Cuomo’s regional development strategy. The $200 million pot is to be distributed competitively among 10 new regional development councils. Kolb’s approach would use $50 million of that money for storm relief, which would still leave $150 million to launch the economic development effort.

There is an important, if obvious, point to be made here: Storm relief counts as economic development. Preserving jobs is a key component of development efforts and if business and agriculture grind to a halt, then jobs and tax revenues will take a hit. This may not be the kind of development Cuomo and the Legislature had in mind when they created the economic fund, but that was before the devastation caused by Tropical Storms Irene and Lee.

This is a matter for Albany to act upon quickly. The governor and legislative leaders should get behind Kolb’s plan, or come up with a better one. Government’s ability to respond may be diminished in this time of financial weakness, but it needs to respond, nonetheless.