By State Sen. Senator Patty Ritchie

With record numbers of New Yorkers out of work, my top priority in Albany

has been helping businesses to create new jobs.

That’s why I used my position as a member of the Senate Energy Committee and

as chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee to support the Recharge New

York Jobs Bill.

Unlike the Power for Jobs program this measure replaces, Recharge New York

provides important reforms that upstate’s businesses and our agriculture

community consider vital to revitalizing our region’s economy.

Our state has one of the worst business climates in the country, not just

because of our high tax rate, but also because we have some of the highest

energy costs in the nation. If we want to convince businesses to come to

our state and help existing businesses to expand, we need to reduce energy

costs to our employers.

Recharge New York helps begin that process. The reforms include:

• Providing long term stability so companies know what their energy costs

will be for the next seven years. The old Power for Jobs program ran from

year to year with no guarantee to companies that they would be able to

recoup their investment if they hired more people or modernized their

plants.

• Makes more farmers eligible to lower their energy costs.

• Insures that existing businesses benefitting from Power for Jobs will have

an opportunity to compete under Recharge New York.

• Requires that the state consider the importance of the employer to the

community where it’s located.

For many of our small communities in Oswego, Jefferson and St. Lawrence

County, they only have one major employer. Our businesses will have a

better chance to qualify if the state has to consider what would happen to

the community if it went out of business or laid off employees.

I am very pleased to see these vital reforms moving forward through the

state legislature.

It’s long past time that New York State recognizes that our farms and our

agriculture industry is vital to revitalizing the upstate economy.

As the Chair of the Senate Agriculture Committee, helping the Legislature to

recognize the importance of incorporating agriculture into this business

program was critically important to me and to family farms across the state.

To illustrate why this bill is so important to the 48th Senate District,

here's a list of the businesses and employers that were assisted by Power

for Jobs, based on a recent report from the New York Power Authority:

Line Account City County Allocation (kW)

1. Birds Eye Foods LLC, Fulton, Oswego County, 1,500

2. Canton-Potsdam Hospital, Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, 150

3. Chapin Watermatics Inc., Watertown, Jefferson County, 325

4. Clarkson University, Potsdam, St. Lawrence County, 1,500

5. Climax Manufacturing Co. Carthage Jefferson County, 1,500

6. Corning, Inc., Canton, St. Lawrence County, 1,500

7. D.E.C. Properties, Inc., Alexandria Bay, Jefferson County, 110

8. Edward John Noble Hospital, Gouverneur, St. Lawrence County, 100

9. Great Lakes Cheese of New York Inc., Adams, Jefferson County, 600

10. Interface Solutions, Inc., Fulton, Oswego County, 940

11. North Lawrence Dairy, North Lawrence, St. Lawrence County, 1,000

12. Samaritan Medical Center, Watertown, Jefferson County, 600

13. St. Lawrence University, Canton, St. Lawrence County, 800

14. Stature Electric, Watertown, Jefferson County, 150

Total kW -- 10,775