Troy loses 600 state workers Scheduled move to Corning Tower in Albany hurts efforts to revitalize city's downtown, critics warn By JIMMY VIELKIND Capitol bureau Updated 08:26 a.m., Thursday, November 10, 2011
ALBANY -- The Department of Health will move nearly 600 employees from buildings in Troy to the Corning Tower, state officials confirmed Wednesday.
The move is part of a larger "re-stacking" of state workspace, announced last month by Office of General Services Commissioner RoAnn Destito. It's pegged to save $9 million in the Capital Region, where the state leases just over 5 million square feet of office space.
Because of employee attrition, vacancy rates in state buildings -- including the Corning Tower, the largest structure in the Empire State Plaza -- are now averaging around 25 percent, and the state is ending leases in privately owned buildings as it consolidates more employees in its own facilities.......................>>>>................>>>>.............Read more: http://www.timesunion.com/local/article/Troy-loses-600-state-workers-2261454.php#ixzz1dOWNiDQC
That will leave a huge empty building in Downtown....maybe Proctors will buy it for $1 from the Plex all in the name of the "arts".
Rachel - don't be such a nay-sayer. I'm far more optimistic about the progress potential here...
What is really going to happen is that Metroplex will give the building to the Schenectady Museum, along with millions of dollars for the renovation of the interior to make it suitable, and make Mr. Morris the chairman of the museum.
Don't be too sure, well, in terms of the employees leaving Schenectady. They may not go to the Corning Tower. but they very well could go back to Wolf Rd where they came from originally, sort of. They used to be at Wolf Rd, then they went to another location in Albany I wish I could remember. So then when the state started taking employees of the state campus, the main district for DOT moved to Wolf Rd. And the Wolf Rd place is half empty now so tell us SB, WHY should the state taxpayers pay to lease in downtown Schenectady when CLEARLY the fact that the taxpayers have been paying for the place in downtown has NOT in any way helped the city.
The taxpaying homeowners in the city have paid taxes to build that building downtown, the taxpaying homeonwers in the city are paying taxes to the state to pay for the lease on that downtown building to have employees in there, AND the taxpaying homeowners in the city have had their taxes increased to pay for the taxes on that building and I challenge you, SB, to provide documentation showing that the high paid state employees who work downtown have made the choice to buy homes in the city. Well?????? Can you show us how moving employees to Schenectady has resulted in the employees buying homes here?
By the way, SB, would you care to explain why you have refused to respond to the call for you to provide proof from GCAR that shows houses in Schdy county are going up? You only repeated what a mere newspaper worker wrote. Are you ready to admit that the newspaper worker has it all wrong????? Still waiting for your proof that values are going up. You CAN'T and you are too chicken to admit your are wrong.
I'll take a guess that when the lease is up for the downtown location, that those emplyees will be moved to Wolf Rd where they have more than enough space
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Well this would be the first smart move NYS has made in a long time.
Prediction.............if GAry McCarthy wins the mayor race..........the gov jobs have a good chance of stayin. If Hull wins the election.......they'll pull the gov jobs out of schenectady.
Now THAT would be called 'working together'.....yes?
When the INSANE are running the ASYLUM In individuals, insanity is rare; but in groups, parties, nations and epochs, it is the rule. -- Friedrich Nietzsche
“How fortunate for those in power that people never think.” Adolph Hitler
The DOT building is locked into a long term lease -- not likely to happen, therefore. plus they got a good deal going there in terms of paying taxes, thanks to the former rulers of Schenectady.. why give it up...
I'm sure the 300 DOT workers in Downtown Schenectady will be relocated to the Corning Tower within the next year.
That will leave a huge empty building in Downtown....maybe Proctors will buy it for $1 from the Plex all in the name of the "arts".
That will give Death Ray/Mercury/Goofy a bigger foot print to stick in their mouths! Your DEM implosion team. If the workers McCarthy created had voted for him he wouldn't have lost.
The DOT workers in Schenectady are from the regional office. DOT has regions, the way ENCON does, and these are region 1 employees. They used to be located in the city of Albany, Holland Avenue I believe. The ones on Wolf Road are the main or central office employees. Does anyone know how long the lease is for in Schenectady? Andrew might not be governor anymore when it's up, who knows?
The DOT jobs were on Holland Ave but if it makes economic sense to move them back to Albany they should do so. No matter who is Mayor. It is not the State's job to proper up failed Metrograft. Given how the DEMS lie about job creation they will continue to double count jobs moved back to Albany. The employees live in Albany County and would welcome the closer commute. No one wants to move into Taxenectady.
Troy doesn't lose anything....hopefully their state levy will decrease because NYS is thinking smarter instead of proping up false economies.....the government can fill cubicles into the millions but eventually the house of cards will fall
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
And GcAR's numbers are that the values in Schenectady county are
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
And GcAR's numbers are that the values in Schenectady county are DOWN
I asked you to provide proof FROM GCAR ITSELF !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Show us the proof DIRECT from GCAR website itself. Use the ACTUAL reports from GCAR to show us that values are up, that values in Schenectady county are what the mere newspaper worker wrote.
So, again, you claim the GCAR's numbers are accurate......show us where GCAR shows the values in the city and/or county of Schenectady are going up.
Come on SB. I have done the research, I have checked the OFFICIAL numbers DIRECT from GCAR's website itself. I have wriitten that values are going DOWN and my observation has been supported AND PROVEN by GCAR. I have provided a link on these threads DIRECT to GCAR's numbers and GCAR's website shows values in Schenectady county going DOWN.
Now SB, you refer to GCAR's numnbers-----provide the link to the GCAR site showing the values going up Well?????????? Well??????? Where is your proof DIRECT from GCAR?
ARe you going to say you believe the mere newspaper worker's error over the official numbers from GCAR????????????? Huh?
Answer???????
Where ON THE GCAR website ITSELF, where in the OFFICIAL NUMBERS DIRECT FROM GCAR ITSELF are YOU seeing values in the county going up???????? Can you tell us?????
Optimists close their eyes and pretend problems are non existent. Better to have open eyes, see the truths, acknowledge the negatives, and speak up for the people rather than the politicos and their rich cronies.
Are Rating Agencies Now Trying to Mug Rich Municipalities?
A savvy and cynical reader sent me this story from the Boston Globe yesterday, “Rating agency downbeat on Mass. communities.” We wanted to show readers that we are not merely after Standard & Poor’s but all sorts of rating agency incompetence and socially destructive behavior. Key extracts:
Moody’s Investors Service has assigned a “negative outlook’’ to the credit ratings of a dozen affluent Massachusetts communities and two regional school districts, in an ominous sign of how the national debt crisis and economy woes threaten the financial health of cities and towns.
The communities, which ranked among the state’s wealthiest, maintained their sterling AAA credit ratings for now, but Moody’s said it would be carefully watching them for signs they should be downgraded, signs like a sharply deteriorating national economy or a downgrade in the federal debt.
The Moody’s review, which put five states and 161 AAA-rated local governments on the negative-outlook watch list, found that Massachusetts was second only to Virginia in the number of communities at risk, largely because both states’ economies are highly dependent on federal spending….
“We’re obviously very concerned about it,’’ said Brookline’s town administrator, Melvin Kleckner.
Other communities that received a negative outlook are Acton, Bedford, Belmont, Concord, Dover, Hingham, Lexington, Newton, Wayland, Wellesley, and Weston.
Now this might sound perfectly sensible until you sit back and think a second.
First, I don’t know all these communities, but I lived in Boston eight years (including first and second grade in Newton Center), and I am pretty confident that the economies of Belmont, Brookline, Newton, Wellesley and Weston are not at all dependent on federal spending, and I suspect that applies to some of the other municipalities on the list. In addition, they are the most affluent communities in the state and among the wealthiest communities in the US. They are likely to hold up well if and when the downturn resumes (after all, they were not badly whacked by the crisis).
Second, the Massachusetts economy has done better than the national average.
Third, if you are gonna put communities on downgrade watch, why are you starting with the strongest ones? You start with the weakest ones. Not only is it true in economies (and in other systems) that the most fragile ones fall over first, in bond markets, the spreads of the riskiest instruments blow out first, and the highest rated credits move later, and not as much. So if the rating agencies were following their usual pattern of validating market action rather than leading it, Moody’s again would focus on the most troubled towns. Some do have serious financial issues and do deserve heightened scrutiny.
My friend’s surmise:
I consider this to be extremely weird behavior. They don’t downgrade them, but they send up a flare. My suspicion is that the agencies are going under the radar into the states (where the national press won’t notice) and stirring up panic, with the obvious aim of bolstering support for budget cuts.
This may sound a tad paranoid, but as Thomas Pynchon says, just because you are paranoid does not mean they are not out to get you. Affluent communities have a lot of investors, including muni investors, who may lose personally if local bonds are downgraded. And in general, people in very affluent communities are much more active and influential politically than most citizens. So this threatened action hits individuals who have a disproportionately large voice in politics and the media. Nicely done.
Consistent with this alert, S&P follows through tonight with its own muni gloomster talk, again threatening local communities with downgrades if the US does not enact the strongest form of budget cuts. And we get similar scare-mongering generalizations: ” “We know the states that are reliant on the federal government, we know the locals that are reliant on the federal government.” That is true in quite a few cases, but it certainly is not true across the board, and is least true in the most affluent communities.
I’d love any reader reports on which communities in Virginia were threatened with ratings actions and whether any other wealthy communities in the US have been put on notice. And if your town has been given an alert, do you buy the link to the Federal downgrade? Does the local economy as having meaningful dependence on Federal funding?
...you are a product of your environment, your environment is a product of your priorities, your priorities are a product of you......
The replacement of morality and conscience with law produces a deadly paradox.
STOP BEING GOOD DEMOCRATS---STOP BEING GOOD REPUBLICANS--START BEING GOOD AMERICANS
Logged
That will give Death Ray/Mercury/Goofy a bigger foot print to stick in their mouths! Your DEM implosion team. If the workers McCarthy created had voted for him he wouldn't have lost. 
