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AMD将在纽约州Utica市Luther Forest技术区建造25亿美元新工厂08年落成大约1200个职位
A high-tech horse trade
Capital Region would gain big chip plant at expense of new state data center
By JAMES M. ODATO, Capitol bureau
Click byline for more stories by writer.
First published: Tuesday, June 20, 2,006
ALBANY -- The Capital Region may gain a huge microchip manufacturing plant but it would lose a new state data center to the Utica area to resolve a tug of war over a high-tech company the Pataki administration is close to luring with $1.2 billion in incentives.
As the legislative session draws to a close this week, lawmakers also are trying to work out differences on a long-term $,322 million boost to help the city of Albany pay for a new convention center.
Advanced Micro Devices has chosen Luther Forest Technology Park in Saratoga County for a computer chip-fabrication plant that will cost at least $2.5 billion, officials close to the deal confirmed.
The company envisions 1,,200 jobs at the Malta site, which is in the district of Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno. It also expects more than 2,,000 construction jobs, according to officials close to the project. Economic developers say it could become a hub for many more businesses and create another 2,,000 support jobs.
Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, who met with Bruno Monday afternoon, said he has concerns about AMD honoring prevailing wage requirements.
State officials, worried about losing AMD, are warning Silver not to push the wage issue too far and say they have worked out solutions to assure project/labor agreements for work paid for with state funds. They also caution against pushing for minority- and women-owned businesses to get pieces of the project.
Silver said he is meeting with AMD executives at the Capitol today and would not predict what his position will be until he hears the presentation. Also meeting with the officials will be RoAnn Destito, D-Rome, and Bruno.
Destito and others in the Utica region have been trying to woo AMD to an 800-acre site in the town of Marcy the state purchased 25 years ago, next to the SUNY Institute of Technology.
State officials are arranging a deal that calls for Utica to instead get a $91 million state data center planned for the Capital Region, said people close to the negotiations. The center, which had been proposed by Pataki but cut from the budget by the Legislature, would consolidate four Capital Region data centers considered vulnerable to blackouts and security breaches.
Destito, however, did not appear pleased with the deal.
"I'm going after the prize, not the consolation prize," she said. "These are two separate issues."
It is unclear how many Capital Region data center jobs would be lost to Utica, but the new AMD jobs would far surpass the loss of state positions locally, one negotiator said.
The state is offering AMD $,900 million in cash and $,300 million in infrastructure improvements for Luther Forest, according to Destito, who noted Marcy would not require the $,300 million.
Pataki said Monday he was not ready to discuss details of the chip fab initiative.
"Close is one thing, announcing is another thing," he said. "The surest way to bungle it is to do a premature announcement."
Ken Green, president of the Saratoga Economic Development Corp., said the prevailing wage issue should not be a deal-breaker. With the 18- yo 24-month construction period and the complexity of the project, he said, AMD will be paying high wages to stay on track. "I can't believe the prevailing wage or some government-directed wage would have a bearing in a project this size and scope," he said.
The AMD project would fill 200 hotel rooms for two years for just the construction managers, said Green. He estimated the project would need 2,,000 laborers, and that another 2,,000 support positions would be created after the 1,200-employee plant opened.
Negotiations between the Assembly Democrats and Senate Republicans also continued on how to complete Pataki's plan to provide $,322 million in extra in-lieu-of-tax payments to the city of Albany. Mayor Jerry Jennings says the money is needed for operations and to finance a hotel-convention center project in downtown.
Bruno, who has blocked the deal, is mulling a plan to strip five years and $75 million from the 32-year payment schedule, officials familiar with talks said. Another plan under discussion would call for some of the money to be specifically designated for the convention center project.
Jennings said a resolution was not at hand on Monday. "I'm still working it," he said.
It is unclear if the Luther Forest project and the Albany convention center financing is part of some end-of-session horse-trading between Bruno and Silver. Silver would not discuss his talks with Bruno. However, the Assembly has backed Pataki's plan to send the extra money to Albany and plans to pass a bill this week that would deliver all $,322 million in PILOT commitments through 2039.
Assemblyman Jack McEneny, D-Albany, said the bill could serve as a basis for negotiation with the Senate.
Other deals were also under discussion privately, particularly a so-called budget cleanup bill that would bring back much of the $1.9 billion in funding Pataki struck from the legislative budget as unconstitutional amendments to his own budget plan.
Pataki said he is willing to go along with some additional spending, including a property tax credit demanded by the Senate. Aides, however, say he planned to veto a bill by today that provided $,122 million in extra aid to hospitals and nursing homes. The Legislature would likely override the veto before leaving town at week's end. |
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发表于 2006-6-24 23:31
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