LI business owners press Spitzer for more cash

Gov. Eliot Spitzer?s plan to create more high-tech jobs in New York is sparking conversation, but many are left wondering whether Long Island is getting its fair share of the state?s help and money.

News 12 Staff

Jan 13, 2008, 5:14 AM

Updated 6,192 days ago

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Gov. Eliot Spitzer?s plan to create more high-tech jobs in New York is sparking conversation, but many are left wondering whether Long Island is getting its fair share of the state?s help and money.
Spitzer gave Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory a $2 million grant Friday to help create dozens of high-tech jobs. However, owners of smaller high-tech businesses on the Island want Spitzer to do more to assist them.
Bob Venero owns Future Tech, an information technology services company that started in his Sayville basement and grew to 130 employees. He is one of those concerned about the governor?s plans. Venero and other business and education leaders met with Spitzer to press him on the need for more state dollars to help high-tech companies thrive on Long Island.
"We?d like to stay on the Island, [we?re] trying very hard to do that,? Venero says.
Matt Crosson of the Long Island Association says $1 billion in state funds have been pumped into the upstate economy during the past five or six years, but Long Island has seen nothing close to that. He says he plans to push the governor to get more money invested in Long Island.
Spitzer tells News 12 Long Island the Cold Spring Harbor Lab grant is just the beginning of a long-term commitment to grow the Island's high-tech industry.
To watch an interview with Spitzer, go to channel 612 on your iO digital cable box and select iO Extra.