Cuomo, Ever The Neo-Liberal, Pits Seven Struggling Upstate Regions Against Each For Development Money

That was a statement Cuomo made today concerning competitive economic development grants he is proposing for upstate, but the statement works as an overall philosophical motto as well:

Seven regions would compete for a $1.5 billion pot of money aimed at stimulating economic development in upstate New York under a plan proposed on Thursday Gov. Andrew Cuomo.

Under Cuomo’s plan, three regions would ultimately be eligible to win $500 million each.
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The seven regions that are eligible for the granting funding are the Mid-Hudson, Capital Region, Mohawk Valley, Central New York, North Country, Southern Tier and Finger Lakes.

The competition will be formally launched on April 15. Submissions are due by July 1 and winners will be announced in the fall.

It’s not the first time Cuomo has turned to a competitive grant process in order to encourage economic development and force different regions to compete with one another.

Over the last four years, Cuomo has turned to Regional Economic Development Councils that compete annually for a package of grants and incentives aimed at stimulating job growth.

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the upstate regions will be in a dash to win the cash, a process that Cuomo said will produce the best plans.

“I believe in competition,” Cuomo said. “‘Well, just give us the money.’ No. No, no, no.”

Classic neo-liberal "Let's pit everybody against each other" move from Cuomo - we simply cannot help everyone, so we're going to dangle out money to seven economically struggling regions, three will win the cash and the other four can go screw themselves.

Cuomo's working the same way with his education policies proposals, where he also said "I believe in competition" as he talked about the need to "break" the public school "monopoly" and bring more "competition" to education via charter schools.

Yes, a classic neo-liberal "Divide and Conquer" strategy to keep everybody at each others throats instead of at the throats of the elites of this nation who are sucking up more and more of the wealth and resources.

It's just too hard to help everybody, so we'll go with the competitions instead.