Archives

May 9 2024

Extended Producer Responsibility Bill Must Be Stopped

A statement from Justin Wilcox, Executive Director of Upstate United “With one month left to go Senate and Assembly leaders are fast-tracking a new version of the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR) legislation, a measure that will increase consumer costs and ban some of the essential goods New Yorkers purchase daily. While the intentions of legislation […]



Apr 22 2024

UPSTATE UNITED RESPONDS TO 2024 ENACTED BUDGET

The following statement can be attributed to Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United   “While the 2024 enacted budget reached a record high of $237 billion and was passed several days after the April 1 deadline, the reality is that the final result could have been much worse for New Yorkers. “We were pleased to […]


Apr 16 2024

THE CLOCK IS TICKING FOR THE NYS BUDGET

The following statement can be attributed to Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United   “The deadline for New York’s Fiscal Year ‘25 spending plan came and went without much consternation, and now two weeks later we have nothing more than ‘parameters of a conceptual agreement’ for a multi-billion-dollar budget. “To an Albany insider, a late […]


Mar 13 2024

STATEMENT FROM UPSTATE UNITED FOLLOWING THE RELEASE OF THE SENATE AND ASSEMBLY ONE-HOUSE BUDGETS

Statement attributed to Justin Wilcox Executive Director of Upstate United “We are beyond disappointed that both the Senate and Assembly’s One-House Budget proposals included measures to raise income taxes, a complete disregard of Comptroller DiNapoli’s warnings back in December. Fortunately, Governor Hochul has signaled that raising income taxes is a non-starter for her and we […]


Mar 5 2024

Albany Times Union: Upstate New York business sentiment hits 15-year low, survey finds

Business leaders overwhelmingly believe that New York’s government works against them, according to Siena College Research Institute Read the article by Rick Karlin here. COLONIE — Opinions about the upstate New York business climate are at the lowest point since 2008, according to a poll released Tuesday by the Siena College Research Institute. In all, 67 percent […]


Mar 3 2024

D&C Editorial: Migrants a key to turn back state’s declining population

New York’s population decline has been a long time in the making. In 2020, the year of COVID-19 and working from home, 1-in-every-100 New York residents left the state. According to the state Comptroller’s Office, 2021 marked the first year the total number of personal income tax filers declined since the Great Recession. Now, newly […]


Feb 20 2024

Albany Times Union: Small farms decline in New York, especially dairy

New York farm trends mirror national movement on bigger farms By Joshua SolomonFeb 18, 2024 ALBANY — Half of New York’s dairy farms from a decade ago no longer exist as rising production costs and national market changes have shuttered thousands of small- and mid-size dairies. Despite the plummeting number of dairy and other farms in […]



Feb 13 2024

UPSTATE UNITED RESPONDS TO USDA’S 2022 CENSUS OF AGRICULTURE DATA

The following statement can be attributed to Justin Wilcox, executive director of Upstate United “It comes as no surprise that data released by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) shows that New York farms are struggling to survive, with nearly 5,000 shuttered since 2012. “While the reality of this situation is disturbing, it comes following countless […]