Hudson Valley Business News + Front Page

Is the $24.33 million spent from 2003 to 2005 in tax credits for companies certified in the Kingston-Ulster Empire Zone, which encompasses 1,280 acres and includes areas of Kingston, town of Ulster, Saugerties and town of Wawarsing (Ellenville), a good use of state taxpayer money?

New armed forces center at Stewart
By KATHY KAHN

In addition to a new hotel, cargo hangars and a helicopter school, Stewart International Airport will soon be home to the new $20 million Stewart-Newburgh Armed Forces Reserve Center, scheduled to break ground in March 2008.

Keeping the Tap tiptop
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

As the debate about the future of the Tappan Zee Bridge and I-287 corridor continues, so continues the task of keeping the span in shape.

Hudson bridges get underwater review
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

The five Hudson Valley bridges operated by the New York State Bridge Authority are undergoing underwater pier inspections as part of federally required safety regulations.

Mr. Hall’s bedside manner
U.S. representative trails a nurse for a day
By KATHY KAHN

Roxana Pantano, a registered nurse at Orange Regional Medical Center’s Horton Hospital campus, works with rehabilitation patients. Monday, Aug. 20, she had a shadow lending a hand: U.S. Rep. John Hall, D-Dover Plains, spent the day walking in the nurse’s footsteps on her daily schedule.

Job picture remains strong
Unemployment up slightly compared with last year
BY JOHN GOLDEN

Westchester County and the lower Hudson Valley showed modest gains in the number of private-sector jobs in July compared with a year ago, even as unemployment rates in the region rose slightly from June, the state Department of Labor recently reported.

Leaders take region’s pulse
By KATHY KAHN

Solar energy, wind turbines, energy-efficient housing: hot topic these days. But they aren’t the only “green” people are thinking about. The other kind has pictures on it, preferably of Benjamin Franklin but just about any portrait will do to put food on the table, gas in the car and keep the mortgage company at bay as subprime loans continue to keep the markets both here and abroad unstable.

Harvest of help in wake of flood
Nature’s wrath meets federal checkbook
By BRYAN F. YURCAN

The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) last week announced it was providing $589,600 in funding to assist farmers in seven New York counties that were adversely impacted by severe flooding earlier this year.

Working the system?
By LYNN WOODS

The departure of IBM in the early 1990s, which resulted in a shortfall of 7,000 jobs, positioned Kingston as an ideal candidate for the Empire Zone program, which was originally designed to boost economic development in depressed areas. Steve Finkle, Kingston’s director of economic development and the Kingston-Ulster zone administrator, cited a number of EZ companies that had thrived under the program, including United Healthcare in Kingston, Hunter Panels in the town of Ulster, and Precision Flow in Saugerties.

The Rules of the game
By LYNN WOODS

The Empire Zone program offers companies in the zone and those specially certified a variety of tax credits, ranging from sales tax exemptions to credits for new jobs to real property credits.

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