Last month, Governor Hochul announced the availability of funding for the twelfth round of the Regional Economic Development Councils (REDC) Initiative, a program which coordinates public funding for a wide array of economic development programs in each of the ten REDC regions of the state. The Regional Councils were first established in 2011 to develop long-term strategic plans for economic growth for their regions. There are ten Regional Councils total—one for each of the following regions: Western New York, Finger Lakes, Southern Tier, Central New York, Mohawk Valley, North Country, Capital Region, Mid-Hudson, New York City, and Long Island.
This round of funding will once again focus on the implementation of each region’s strategic plan and continue to identify and invest in significant economic development projects. The 2022 funding allocations are identical to previous years:
- A total of $150 million in capital funding through Empire State Development (ESD), with $10 million in each region and $20 million in five selected regions; and
- A total of $75 million in Excelsior Tax Credits for regional projects that create jobs.
Unlike in prior funding rounds, while projects submitted through the Consolidated Funding Application (CFA) will also be eligible for funding from other state agency programs, REDCs will not score projects that have applied to these programs (as noted in the attached summary for specific programs).
This year, the REDCs will have an additional focus on enabling workforce development projects, such as job training and placement programs. Each REDC will work with the new ESD Office of Strategic Workforce Development to develop a “Regional Workforce Inventory,” identifying each region’s post-pandemic workforce needs. In the summer, REDCs will select priority tradable areas from their Inventory and develop a roadmap for how to address the workforce needs and opportunities within those sectors for the region. The Inventories and these documents will be publicly available to serve as a guide to applicants and for ESD during application reviews for a new $150 million workforce development grant program, which will be offered later in the year.
Several programs that may be of interest to health care providers and stakeholders are summarized in the attached document. More information can be found in the program guidebook here. CFA applications (available here) will be accepted until July 29th. Several programs will accept applications on an ongoing basis and are not subject to the July 29th deadline, as noted in the attached summary.