Once famed as the Empire State, New York has the bones to rise up from its financial morass and become an economic superpower once again. That’s the assessment of Onondaga County Executive Ryan McMahon, who nailed down a $100 billion investment from Micron for a mega computer chip project in his area.
The building of chips in the upstate community of Clay, N.Y. has global ramifications as President Trump has made the return of manufacturing to the states a priority of his administration. As it stands, Taiwan controls more than 90% of the world’s chip production, a situation that would paralyze the U.S. economy if China made good on its threat to take over its island neighbor and cut off the supply.
Winning such a massive investment for a rural town was no easy feat, but the county executive had a lot going for him both in tenacity and geographically. McMahon was courting a similar facility by Taiwan Semiconductor, a massive factory that fell through because the site wasn’t large enough. It turns out that Taiwan Semi is a competitor with Micron in Phoenix and they were looking for new territory. McMahon knew what it would take to woo them. The executive, whose county was shrewd enough to build up a $200 million surplus, bought out an entire neighborhood to increase its available plot from 500 to 1,400 acres.
Now, Central New York had all the ingredients to become North America’s new epicenter for technology. Aqueducts bring in an ample supply of fresh water from Lake Erie. They’re near a major energy hub and control their own sewer system, factors that corporations look at when planning huge projects.
But New York offers much more. “Many of the areas competing with us are flat with not too many features while we have it all,” McMahon said. The Excelsior State has mountains, lakes, an ocean, Niagara Falls, New York City, ports, agriculture, military bases, and many other attractions and vital infrastructure. More importantly, it has a vast network for higher education, world-class research institutions, and a talented workforce. It also has a legacy of major industries —Corning, IBM, GE, Carrier, Kodak—companies that transitioned from the state due to shortsighted government policies.
County Executive McMahon offers his experience in winning the Micron project as a master class in setting up a community for a prosperous future. His advice should be heeded by politicians such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, who infamously killed a major Amazon project in her district because she didn’t understand how tax incentives work. He warned New York leaders such as Gov. Kathy Hochul that the state’s confiscatory policies deter companies from coming here despite its other attributes.
To lose its moniker as the “Vampire State” and regain its economic glory, McMahon stressed, New York needs to stop its wasteful spending and cut taxes, end its status as a sanctuary state, rein in the MTA and its taxpayer-bleeding congestion pricing, pull its unfunded mandates on local government, and stop battling President Trump in his campaign to Make America Great Again.