Former president Clinton to speak in Albany

PHOTOGRAPHER: David Lombardo

Former President Bill Clinton is scheduled to visit Albany to give a speech on economic development at Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Statewide Regional Council Conference.

The Empire State Plaza Convention Center will host the all-day event on Tuesday, when the 10 regional councils come together. The conference is one step in the governor’s Regional Economic Development Councils that are competing for $200 million in funding and tax incentives.

For a conference revolving around job creation and improving the economy, Union College Assistant Professor Bradley Hays argued that Clinton made sense. As evidence, Hays cited the fact that the nation’s unemployment rate was about 7.4 percent when Clinton went into office and dropped to about 4 percent when he left.

While Clinton’s economic plans were being implemented, Cuomo was serving in the Department of Housing and Urban Development, eventually heading the federal agency. Hays argued this indicated the two politicians share a similar view of economic development, citing their view that government can create the conditions for job growth and the importance they place on private-public partnerships.

Since leaving the presidency in 2001, Clinton has gotten back into the job creation game and has been offering his 14 policies to getting the economy back on track. One of those policies involves the retrofitting of old buildings, which would meet two criteria endorsed by the Capital Region Economic Council: employing New Yorkers and improving existing infrastructure. A spokeswoman for the Empire State Development Corporation noted that President Clinton will not be getting paid for his appearance. This is in sharp contrast to his last appearance in the Capital Region, when he raked $200,000 for a speech at the University of Albany in the Spring.

To attend the conference, people must enter a lottery by Friday. You can register for the lottery at nyworks.ny.gov.