Well it appears WNY has been put on the back burner once again. I sure would like to start posting some good positive news here about what Albany and the Governor is doing for us and not to us.

Just when we think that something good is going to happen, they pull the rug out from under us.

Paterson loses good will in upstate New York with change

That era of good feelings didn’t last long.

Less than two months after taking over as governor under emergency circumstances, David Paterson appears ready to partially negate the most significant step his predecessor had taken to help the upstate economy.

Eliot Spitzer had fulfilled a campaign promise to give special attention to upstate by creating both upstate and downstate chairmanships of the Empire State Development Corp.

Since being named to the $160,000-a-year job in January 2007, Daniel Gundersen had seen to it that Rochester, Buffalo, central New York, the Southern Tier, the Mohawk Valley and the North Country all received grants and other assistance.

Now, Paterson wants to revert to the former structure of having a single official in charge of economic development for the entire state.

The governor’s representatives insist that Empire State Development will still have an upstate division with the clout to add on to Gundersen’s achievements. In fact, it’s likely Gundersen himself will still be in charge of that division.

If that proves to be true, then upstate business leaders might have overreacted Thursday and Friday when Paterson’s intentions became known.

But you can hardly blame them. For decades, economic development in this state was focused way too much on New York City and way too little on upstate, even as the latter’s economy was changing forever because of the decline of manufacturing.

As Sandy Parker, chief executive of the Rochester Business Alliance, said Friday: “How can we have a revitalized economy if Empire State Development packs up its bags and heads home to midtown Manhattan again?”

Catherine Glover, CEO of the Greater Binghamton Chamber of Commerce, also was on point as she said, “Our economic development situation needs to be addressed by someone who is immersed in the area and, equally important, has the authority to do something without a negotiation with New York City.

“The governor hasn’t given the current structure time to work. His change in direction will not be good for upstate.”