NORWICH – As he has for the past 13 years, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, D-Binghamton, paid his annual visit to Chenango County to assess some of the roadblocks facing local businesses and to determine what he can do in Washington to find solutions to them.
Those attending the round table discussion held at the Chenango County Council of the Arts Monday afternoon included executives from the Raymond Corporation, Unison Industries, Chenango Memorial Hospital and Commerce Chenango. Chenango County and City of Norwich officials also participated.
The stock market took another nose dive Monday, shedding 14 percent over the past two weeks combined, and the Senator took a moment to reflect on that. He said he found the notion that the country could default on its debt obligations without consequences – as members of the Tea Party in Congress have suggested – “confounding.”
“They have been proven wrong. We are like a blindfolded mass walking toward a cliff. If we keep walking in this same direction, we are going to fall off,” he said.
To control the debt, Schumer suggested getting a handle on spending and creating jobs through education, innovation and research.

Unison
On a local level, Gary Cummings of Unison Industries, the aircraft engine electrical and mechanical systems manufacturer in Norwich, asked the Senator to keep pushing Congress for General Electric’s F136 engine for Lockheed Martin’s F35 Joint Strike Fighter. Between 25 and 30 percent of Unison’s business in Norwich is for GE, including manufacturing parts for the fighter plane.
Despite calls from some in Congress, and also from the President, that building both GE’s F136 and Pratt and Whitney’s F135 engine, which is also being designed for Lockheed, are unnecessary and cost prohibitive for the military, GE has decided to take a risk and continue funding its own plane’s development through 2012, the company’s director of operations said.
“I’m asking when it will go into production?” Cummings asked the Senator, “and to say that we just want to compete” for the U.S. military’s business.
Schumer said GE “has made a very strong argument” about the need for two striker aircraft. “Competition tends to keep the cost down for all,” he said, “and that’s where my support lies. I’m confident we can get this done.”
Cummings said Unison currently employs 330. With the manufacturing schedule planned, it could add another 60 engineers by year’s end and another 70 in 2012.

Raymond
The chief executive officer of Greene-based Raymond Corporation described his business as “fragile.”
Market share for the global forklift manufacturer declined by 60 percent during the recession, and only recovered about 34 to 35 percent last year, according to Raymond CEO and President James J. Malvaso. He told the Senator that the nation’s corporate tax structure – being the highest in world – and unfair trade policies with countries abroad made it difficult to do business.
He pointed to China’s cost advantage in trade policies, with zero tariff for products coming into the United States but a 9 percent tariff on American-made products exported to China.
Raymond is currently building a plant in China, but the chief executive said the company has no plans to relocate.
“But if the infrastructure in the state and climate for doing business doesn’t change, they are going to force our hand. We have seen some good signs from the Governor’s office, and give him the benefit of the doubt. The past two governors didn’t do a lot for us,” said Malvaso prior to Schumer’s arrival.
“We don’t want state money for anything, we just want an environment to produce, provide benefits to our workers, work on environmentally conscientious ways of doing things, build infrastructure and grow here.”
Schumer said he is pushing for closing some of the loopholes of the corporate tax structure and invited Malvaso to speak privately after the meeting about fair trade versus free trade.
Raymond, a $1.7 billion globally competitive company that is owned by Toyota Industries, employs 1,100 currently and has 100 open requisitions for product. The company has plans to add approximately another 200 employees in Greene.
Other roadblocks include a rapidly deteriorating and dangerous state Rt. 12 and the inability to tap into the county’s natural gas reserves for energy, said Mavaso.
“We’ve become a consumption economy rather than a production economy,” he concluded. Schumer said he often uses the same refrain.

Farm Bureau
Representing the Chenango County Farm Bureau, President Bradd Vickers outlined some of the issues confronting the agricultural industry. He reiterated Malvaso’s sentiments regarding fair trade, highlighting foreign labor problems in particular, and also supported the Raymond executive’s call for a better climate in which to do business.
“Americans won’t do farm work any longer. Fair trade and labor issues need to be resolved to help keep farmer’s profitable .... Are you going to invest in expanding your business within New York State’s lending climate? Farmers are pretty skeptical to expand, and they aren’t encouraging their sons to take over the farm,” he said.
Vickers fielded the Senator’s questions regarding Agro Farma’s demand for milk, and whether Chenango County’s dairy farmers had acquired more cows as a result. Upon learning that the number of cows had actually declined over the recent past, and that milk for producing the Columbus-based company’s Chobani yogurt brand was coming from out of the state, Schumer said he “would have to check that out.”
Vickers explained that the northeast’s Dairy Marketing Services contracts for distribution have locked the county’s farmers into strict price controls.
Schumer said he would be setting up a meeting with Chobani’s president, the New York Farm Bureau and himself soon and would be working on an agricultural jobs bill by the end of the year. He also said to expect a farm bill by this winter. Vickers asked the Senator to keep in mind the dairy industry’s contribution to the state’s Women, Infants and Children program when considering adding to the federal government’s financial support of farming.
Commerce Chenango Economic Development Director Jennifer Tavares said the USDA’s revolving loan program could help the agriculture industry, but because it is an intermediate lending program, local development corporations that would administer it could be left on the hook for the money.
“It’s just not attractive. We have to change the program,” she said.
Schumer said he would look into whether the program statutes or regulations are preventing its success.

Local government
Chenango County Board of Supervisors Chairman Richard B. Decker, R-N. Norwich, also expressed concern about the poor condition of the state Rt. 12 corridor from Binghamton to Utica. Schumer said he has been responsible for securing $20 million in federal funding for the roadway, but has thus far been unable to get the NYS Department of Transportation to contribute their share of the funding necessary to straighten the road and make improvements.
“Route 12 is still one of my top five or six projects statewide. A very high priority. We are going to shake this loose,” Schumer said.
William J. Roberts, finance director for the City of Norwich, said the city planned to borrow and build a new drinking water plant for about $6 to $8 million. He thanked the Senator for his support in securing the funding necessary to complete recent upgrades to the city’s wastewater treatment plant.
“I helped the city the last time (with upgrade to wastewater treatment plant) and I will try to help again,” he said.
Schumer said he hoped to marry the concept of the so-called repatriation tax holiday, or a corporate tax break for overseas profits, and the nation’s infrastructure needs. He suggested such a project could raise between $200 and $300 billion for roads and water and sewer plants.
“I think everyone will support it,” he said.

CMH
Chenango Memorial Hospital’s President Drake Lamen asked that the hospital be considered for status as a Medicare dependent hospital. Without it, he said he is concerned about CMH’s ability to withstand health care cuts coming down the pike.
“Our only option is to reorganize and restructure constantly,” he said. With 550 employees and a $60 million budget, declining revenues from Medicare makes it difficult to keep up with capital investment needed to stay in line with technological advancements. The status has been difficult to obtain due to the proximity of other hospitals in the region, Lamen said.
“If we can’t make a bottom line, to reinvest in all of these technological things are very tough,” said Lamen.
Despite spending $1 million per year to stay current, Chenango County’s sole hospital is still near last place with respect to capital reinvestment amongst its peer hospitals in New York, he said. Schumer said he would help to secure the status necessary and pointed Lamen to information technology dollars available within the stimulus bill.

Natural gas
Chenango County’s economic development consultant for the natural gas industry, Steven J. Palmatier, told Senator Schumer that the natural gas resources within the Marcellus and Utica shales are “one heck of an opportunity” for Chenango County. He said the state’s draft of permitting regulations to allow drilling adequately addresses casing, cementing and fracturing fluid treatment. However, he said it would inhibit the county’s ability to obtain the necessary pipeline infrastructure for gas because corridors are prohibited through state land, something of which Chenango County has an abundance. He also said compulsory integration procedures make it difficult for non-chartered counties like Chenango to profit from leasing.

Schumer met with Malvaso and other business executives privately following the meeting. He and his staff arrived 35 minutes late to the roundtable due to traffic on state Rt. 12 , he said. The Senator was in Milford prior to the gathering, where he pushed for a bill that would cut excise tax on small breweries across upstate New York by 50 percent.