B.N.E. PACT WOULD BE A WASTE
By Bob Confer

It costs money to be a part of the team, big money, especially if that team is the Buffalo Niagara Enterprise.

Earlier this year the BNE had asked Niagara County to join their board of directors to the tune of $50,000 per year. After some initial hesitation by the legislature, it now appears they are having second thoughts and will address the matter in upcoming meetings. Let us hope that common sense reigns in these discussions and the legislature says “no” to the BNE. Not only would it be fiscally imprudent to join, but it would be philosophically wrong as well. 

The yea or nay of this expenditure is a basic business decision: why pay extra for something that’s already being accomplished in house? $50,000 is not a cheap annual investment. It’s downright expensive, especially when one considers that joining the BNE would create a duplication of efforts. Niagara County already invests significant well-spent monies in its own Center For Economic Development. The bilateral efforts applied by our economic development and IDA functions do a decent job in promoting Niagara County and garner many successes despite the stigma associated with doing business in New York State. Adding strength and value to these efforts, local Chambers of Commerce assist Niagara County with such affairs…not for $50,000 but for free.

Joining the BNE would guarantee this redundancy in marketing efforts, and it would be a weak one at that. The $50,000 would be a “part-time” investment in getting the word out, as the BNE wants to market the whole of Western New York. This regionalization sounds good at first, but realize that the BNE and its mother organization – the Buffalo Niagara Partnership – are decidedly pro-Buffalo and would tend to look at Niagara County as a second rate destination. In essence, we’d be a silent partner.

The proof of this disrespect is in the pudding: Andrew Rudnick and his cronies at the BNP have damned Niagara County in the past and continue to do so. The Niagara Falls airport is the key to Niagara County’s future as a freight and tourism hub and has been a huge topic of discussion of late in political circles with the state and federal people getting closer to making something happen there. Rudnick has scoffed at this and considers any efforts a waste of money. This does not sound like an organization that truly has the best interests of Niagara County’s future in mind.  

The BNP and BNE will defend themselves and imply both groups are independent of one another. Such pandering must be ignored because one is a spin-off of the other. It would be like saying the NFTA or NYPA are not parts of New York State. As with those examples, one begat the other and are fully intertwined.

Catering to these Buffalo-Niagara groups through membership would signify that our county has caved-in to the threats of extortion. The BNE has been tossing around “what-if” tales, saying that if we were in their inner circle we would have known about Wacker Chemical wanting to come to the Falls, rather than finding out after the fact, when Wacker finally said “no”. They are implying that the $50,000 investment could have guaranteed Niagara County’s participation in talks, maybe ultimately ensuring 1,000 new jobs for Niagara.

If anything, the whole Wacker fiasco proved that the BNE is a travesty. If any economic development organization truly cared about the region and its people like they say they do, they would have brought all of the players to the table to make something happen. But they didn’t. Instead they tried to handle it mostly on their own, ultimately proving the BNE possesses its own self-serving agenda. The BNE brings in new companies not for the betterment of all but for the betterment of the BNE and its bottom line as a political-economic mediation firm. 

This is not the sort of group our county should be associated with. We can handle our destiny on our own. Hopefully the county legislature realizes this and decides against joining the BNE. A seat on the board would be a one-sided affair with Niagara County destined to be the loser. It would prove to be a waste of $50,000 and an insult to the county’s employees, taxpayers, and future.