Cuomo Goes To Cuba

Sounds like one of those Ernest movies from back in the day, doesn't it?

Cuomo goes to Cuba.

Starring Sheriff Andy Cuomo, Assembly Speaker Carl Heastie, but not Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos because he's under federal investigation and I bet prosecutors wouldn't be too happy to see him leave the country.

And what's Cuomo going for?

Why, to open trade relations with Cuba:

“This trade mission, part of the broader Global NY initiative, will guarantee that New York businesses are first in line to take advantage of this new, emerging economic market,” said Cuomo spokeswoman Melissa DeRosa.

Ah, yes - the Global NY initiative.

That's kind of like Cuomo's Start-Up NY initiative, only on a global scale.

You know about Start Up NY, don't you?

This is something the people of Cuba just need to know about before Sheriff Andy and his trade contingent arrive:

The state of New York, which lost 122,000 private sector jobs last decade, has botched its latest attempt to subsidize growth. After months of foot-dragging, the Empire State Development Corporation released a report last week about Start-Up NY, a program that it began under Governor Andrew Cuomo to attract tech innovation. Despite Cuomo’s promises, the report found that Start-Up NY spent millions in marketing dollars, while creating laughably small returns. Thus, it fits into the ESDC’s broader culture of failure, and should be a rebuke for someone who has presidential ambitions, yet reinforces the policies that have contributed to economic decline throughout New York.

The report summarized the first year of a program that Cuomo launched in 2014 to create tech clusters in the state, giving tax breaks to tech-related businesses that open near college campuses. The state has already spent $47 million on advertising, and overall public expenditures for the program’s first three years are expected to be $323 million. Total job creation figures after five years are expected to be 2,085, but so far that figure stands at a whopping 76 jobs.

“The nine out-of-state companies,” wrote City Journal’s E.J. McMahon, “have pledged to create 451 jobs based on a projected five-year investment of just $4.3 million, or less than 10 percent of the program’s first-year ad expenditure.”

I'm sure the people of Cuba will be so glad that Sheriff Andy Cuomo is coming to Cuba to share with them the Global NY initiative.

Maybe they too can spend millions of dollars and reap little economic benefit in return - just the way we in New York do.

Start-Up Havana, courtesy of Andrew Cuomo.