From Joseph Hernandez, candidate for NYS Comptroller:
Fifty-five years of decline. Buffalo down 41% since 1970. Niagara Falls down 45%. Rochester down 29%. Syracuse down 25%. Utica down 29%. Every major upstate city hollowed out, and the two people who’ve run this state’s finances the longest have nothing to show for it.
@TomDiNapoli has controlled the state pension fund for almost 20 years. Nearly two decades of “watchdog” press releases while the cities he’s sworn to protect kept emptying out.
@KathyHochul has had the Governor’s mansion and a $277 billion budget and upstate New York is still bleeding people on her watch too. Neither one has a plan. Just excuses and photo ops. That ends on Day 1, when I establish the Empire Opportunity Fund: $10 billion of the state pension fund, deployed like a real venture fund, investment-grade equity to relocate and establish the next generation of companies right here across upstate New York. Real jobs, real growth, real reversal. Enough decline, time to build.