Governor Cuomo Visits the Southern Tier

12/5/2012 (Updated 6:48:35 PM)

"We've made remarkable progress in the Southern Tier. And I'm very optimistic because we have such assets here. It's just a beautiful part of the country, it has great academic universities, we have BU here, we have healthcare universities, we have a great workforce. So we have all the pieces to really have a great economy," said Cuomo.

At the Greater Binghamton Airport Wednesday morning, Governor Cuomo told us he is impressed with the Southern Tier's economic recovery since the devastating 2011 flood.

Last year the southern tier was awarded 49 million dollars by the council for 58 projects. Cuomo listened to presentations about the success of the projects from round 1, and the requests for round 2-- including funding for agriculture projects and downtown revitalization.

"you have high-tech, you have marriage between academia and higher manufacturing, but you also have rural activities, farming, and green products, so i think the diversity of their approach is very striking," said cuomo.

The governor got to ride a hybridrive bus when he visited BAE Systems a company that  was completely rebuilt after the flood. 

BAE Systems has requested funding to partner with Binghamton University to further develop hybridrive technology.

"We really want to grow those funds because they've been so successful. I think we have a very strong proposal. Last time we just didn't have a lot of projects that we could compete against, but now we have a long list of very good strong projects that we think can compete with anybody in the state," said Kevin McLaughlin, Regional Director of Empire State Development.

Officials say the decision on who gets the awards will be finalized by the end of 2012.