Issue Position: Creating Jobs

Issue Position

More than 13,000 of our neighbors in Dutchess and Columbia Counties are unemployed; many thousands more are underemployed. We must get them back to work, and the best way to do that is through smart, sustainable economic growth that takes advantage of the best of our region. We can make use of opportunities like the new Excelsior Jobs Creation Program, which offers incentives to both existing local businesses to expand their workforces and to new businesses that will bring jobs to our region -- and keep them here. The Hudson Valley can lead the country in developing and using renewable energy. We could rehabilitate and repurpose our abandoned historic structures for housing, offices, community centers and cultural projects, rather than leave them to deteriorate. We need to expand and support historic, cultural, and environmental tourism -- already one of our biggest economic engines.

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