Cuomo Tours State Funded Projects in Rochester

Governor Cuomo is in town today for a bus tour, to see how the Rochester area is spending state taxpayer dollars.
The Governor is following up on New York's "Open for Business" program, a plan he says will put people to work.
The first stop: The Kodak Eastman Business Park.
7,500 employees from 36 different companies work there everyday.
The money from Albany will help see Kodak through bankruptcy and beyond.
Mike Alt, the Director of Eastman Business Park, says Kodak is in talks with an Asian company to develop new smartphone touchscreen technology at the park.
 He added "I wanted the Governor to leave knowing that this is the gem of upstate New York. It's one of the most important assests we have to creating jobs; and not just jobs today but jobs for the future."
 Then it was on to Midtown, where Cuomo greeted some of the 200 construction workers who will eventually be employed at the site.
 To date, $56 million in state money has been invested to transform the empty space into office, residential, hotel and retail space.
 Cuomo said the problem of an abandoned downtown is not unique to Rochester.
"The situation is typical actually. What's not typical is the city is doing something about it."
 Tour guides told Cuomo about some of the other projects the state supports, like the University of Rochester's College Town, and improvements to the I-390 corridor.
Last stop; PharmaSmart International.  The Rochester company makes the blood pressure machines seen in pharmacies across the U.S.
 News 8's Tina Shively asked President & CEO Fred Sarkis "How important was the state funding to you?" Sarkis replied "It was really important. It helped us in our decision to expand and it gave us a lot of opportunity to grow the business."
 Cuomo says he's pleased with Rochester's progress, adding "It's very easy to say the Mayors and the County Executive and the academic universitites and the businesses should all come together. It's just very hard to do in reality. So we're always striving to do it,  but it happens plus or minus and I think it works very well here."