By Mark Scott
Buffalo, NY – Local elected leaders joined the Buffalo Niagara Partnership Monday in releasing the 2009 Regional Agenda. For the second year in a row, UB 2020 is once again listed as the region's top priority.
Because of the anticipating cut in spending because of the state's fiscal crisis, Partnership President Andrew Rudnick says they're concentrating on policy changes that would boost economic development efforts. Rudnick regulatory reforms such as more tuition flexibility are needed for UB 2020 to move forward.
"UB 2020 is an economic development plan with a potential impact that this community -- in fact, this part of the state -- has not seen before, which is why it has been identified as theBuffalo Niagara region's top economic development priority for 2009," said Andrew J. Rudnick, president and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.
Still, there are some funding requests in the 2009 Regional Agenda for continued growth of the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus downtown and for the Niagara Falls International Airport and a planned international railway station in the Falls.