Elmont Online

ALBANY -- Gov. Andrew Cuomo took his $1 billion economic development plan on the road Tuesday and said it's time New Yorkers stop talking about the good old days of booming economies if they want to create a better future for their children.

"Of late, my friends, the truth is there's been too much talk of the old days and, 'When we had this factory and when we did steel and when we did this.' We have to talk more of the future rather than in the past," Cuomo said in Buffalo. "We have to talk more about what we are going to be."

Polls have shown New Yorkers and particularly more conservative upstate residents have long been pessimistic about their economy and jobs as well as their elected officials' ability to improve either after decades of promises and new economic development programs.

Cuomo's twist would pool $1 billion in tax breaks and aid for construction and infrastructure as prizes for the best proposals in 10 regions around the state that would compete for the resources.

Cuomo announced the members of his first two regional councils -- one for Western New York and another for Central New York -- on Tuesday. They will act as advisory boards of business, education and government leaders to recommend tax breaks, capital projects and other benefits to support regional proposals to create and retain jobs. Final decisions on projects and funding will remain with state officials, despite Cuomo's repeated statements that his program would end the "top-down" approach of previous administrations.

As with some of Cuomo's previous appointments, Cuomo appointed a few of his campaign contributors to the high-profile, unpaid positions. They include the western New York co-chairman, Howard Zemsky, who contributed $15,000 to Cuomo's campaigns; and board member John Koelmel, who contributed $2,000 to Cuomo's governor campaign last year.

Zemsky is the managing for the Larkin Development Group, a marketing and manufacturing company; and Koelmel is CEO and president of First Niagara Financial Group, a bank and financial services company with branches in the Capital Region.