Republicans in the State Senate have expressed skepticism about Governor Cuomo's plan to create "tax free zones" at college campuses. The governor has yet to submit the bill to the legislature, but critics say the plan does not go far enough, that all businesses across the state deserve some long-awaited tax relief.
Senator Joe Robach, a Republican from Greece, says he's while he hasn't seen all the details of the proposal yet, he's appreciative of the fact that the governor is trying to help the struggling Upstate economy. "And it sounds to me like, and again, I give the governor credit for this, that he's throwing this out there and there's going to be ample opportunity for dialogue, not only for the legislature but for the folks at large, which I think is the right way to govern. Try to get input from as many people as you can before you move forward."
Robach says while he would like to see more broad-based tax relief, the proposed tax-free zones could help boost Rochester's economy. "Colleges and universities in Rochester, the University of Rochester, RIT, St. John Fisher, SUNY Brockport and Geneseo, Nazareth, all of them, have a great deal of intellectual capacity, a lot of patents, all kinds of things that could be beneficial and could hopefully be commercialized somewhere in New York."
