Biotech aid faces an uncertain fate in Albany

Gov. George E. Pataki gave Westchester's budding biotech industry a shot in the arm this month when he announced he would expand the Centers of Excellence technology program to include two proposed local biomedical centers.

Biotech advocates and local business leaders hall the governor's idea

to include the centers planned by New YorkPresbyterian Hospital for White Plains and by the publicprivate "North 60" partnership for Valhalla, but a basic question looms: Will state lawmakers support more subsidies for biotech in Westchester when Albany is scrambling to plug a $10 billion budget gap next year?

Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver (D-Manhattan) is shying away from commenting on Pataki's proposal made Jan. 8 in his State of the State address.

"It's too early to tell. We're waiting for the governor's budget proposals," Silver spokesman Bryan Franke said.

But Mark Hansen, a spokesman for state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno (R-Saratoga), said the senator supports Pataki's expansion proposal.

"Now is not the time to make the state less competitive, either by raising taxes or cuttig support for,economic development projects," Hansen said.

Centers of Excellence have been created to promote commercialization of scientific discoveries through collaboration by businesses, academic institutions, venture capital firms and the state.

In interviews, advocates for Westchester and statewide business interests say Albany cannot afford not to ratchet up its spending on biotech given the aggressive economic programs developed by New Jersey and other states.

It shows we have a willing partner who gives a push and an impetus to our biotech alliance," said Lawrence E. Dwyer Jr., president of The Westchester County Association Inc.

Last year, the association teamed up with New York-Presbyterian, North 60 partner New York Medical College and LCOR Inc., the leasing-managing agent for The Landmark at Eastview office-lab complex, to form the biotech alliance with officials from Putnam and Rockland counties.

Dwyer's group had pressed Pataki for more than a year to create new Centers of Excellence in Westchester - prompting the governor to hint in a February 2002 talk presented by the county association that he would do so.

"Challenging though it may be, it would be both unsafe and unwise to overlook the potential in a promising idea like expansion of Centers of Excellence," said Matthew Maguire, a spokesman for The Business Council of New York State Inc., the state's largest business advocacy group.

The budget gap should compel Albany to cut costs by going slower on expanding Centers of Excellence, said Frank Mauro, president of the labor-funded Fiscal Policy Institute in Latham. That could be done, he said, by teaming up with an industry group to set criteria, then decide where new centers should go - as Pataki's predecessor, Democrat Mario M. Cuomo, based decisions for new science facilities on guidelines of the National Academy of Sciences.

But Brian McMahon, executive director of the not-for-profit New York State Economic Development Council, says the state's budget woes should not stop Pataki or lawmakers from supporting biotech and other high-tech business sectors.

"This is real important for the purpose of attracting capital investment and creating jobs," McMahon said. "The financial benefits to the state are much greater than the costs."