Editorial: Don't be so quick to drop upstate economic czar

It’s unclear just what Gov. David Paterson has in mind for the Empire State Development Corp., but it apparently does not include continuing to have two separate chairmen, one for downstate and one for upstate.

The addition of an upstate chairman, Daniel Gundersen, was one of the things Eliot Spitzer did to show his recognition of the desperate condition of upstate’s economy and his desire to do something about it. More important, it wasn’t only a PR move; Gundersen has some real power — to make decisions, get spending and projects approved, etc. Paterson should think twice before going back to one chairman.

Gundersen is headquartered in Buffalo. Not exactly a central location, but that’s why it was chosen. It’s out of the way — away from the money of Manhattan and the politics of Albany — and therefore easily forgotten about. It is also perhaps the best symbol of upstate New York’s decline, a once-prosperous city that has seen much of its tax base, and population, disappear over the last 25 years or so.

Paterson has said he believes having two economic development czars sends the wrong message, because “we are one state.” The trouble is, given the economic and political dominance of downstate, it doesn’t always feel that way to upstaters. Spitzer’s two-headed czar plan, though it may have led to some bureacratic problems, was an attempt to make upstate feel it wasn’t being ignored.

Paterson should give the current arrangement more time to prove its worth. If he goes ahead with the change, he could soften the blow by naming Gundersen to the unified chairman’s job. And by locating the unified headquarters in Albany, rather than Manhattan, where it was before.