On LI visit, Cuomo challenges Paladino on job creation

Attorney General Andrew Cuomo visited Long Island Monday to tout his economic development proposals and took another shot at his gubernatorial opponent, Buffalo businessman Carl Paladino.

"He is in the private sector; he says he creates jobs," said Cuomo. "The jobs he created were paid for by you and by you and by you and by you and by me. They were taxpayer-subsidized jobs. There is no model to replicate there."

Cuomo was referring to reports in the Daily News and elsewhere that Paladino had pocketed $3 million in Empire Zone tax breaks for a project that created 25 jobs.

"These were corporate giveaways on the premise of job creation that never materialized, and once again the taxpayers wound up with the bill," Cuomo said. "My opponent's experience and model, I think, is exactly wrong for the State of New York. We just can't afford it."

Cuomo made those remarks after a tour of Canrock Ventures, an early-state technology venture capital fund based in Jericho that Cuomo said exemplifies the kind of collaboration between universities and the private sector that supports an "innovation economy" he says other states have proved much better at nurturing.

In an interview Monday night, Paladino said the Empire Zone tax breaks Cuomo referred to created thousands of jobs through the tenants who rented space from him. Cuomo "is not looking at the right numbers," Paladino said, noting that the state forms the attorney general cited show only jobs created for Paladino's own company - admittedly a handful - but excluded those created by tenants. "The real jobs that are created are those from the tenants who take over the properties."

Cuomo also announced a "downstate business advisory council" studded with dozens of big names in the metropolitan area, including Pepsi chief executive Indra Noori, Lazard Freres banking eminence Felix Rohatyn and Phat Farm clothing creator Russell Simmons.

Those on the list with Long Island connections include James Dolan, chairman of Cablevision, which owns Newsday; Robert Catell, chairman of Stony Brook University's Advanced Energy Research and Technology Center; developer Vincent Polimeni; Democratic National committeeman-public relations executive Robert Zimmerman; and Mark Fasciano, the Canrock Ventures partner who hosted Cuomo's visit.