In Ulster County, the top fifth of Ulster County filers had more income than the remaining four-fifths. Is that equitable? Like folks elsewhere, most residents would have a ready answer — probably based on their political beliefs.

What if you are uncomfortable with offering tax incentives to businesses to locate in your jurisdiction, worrying that the jobs you are competing for in exchange for those incentives might not be worth the losses in revenues to which you are agreeing? Worried about corporate welfare? What should we be doing differently to spur economic development? In Ulster County as elsewhere, the folks who give the tax breaks are pondering the answers to these questions.  

It’s ironic. Though discount carrier Norwegian Air is skating on perilously thin financial ice these days, its first full year of international service at Stewart Airport was not responsible for that red ink. On the contrary. Ending the year with a flourish, the airline’s year-end numbers signal an indisputable success at Stewart.

Engineering at SUNY New Paltz has come a long way in the past six years.

Governments at every level routinely offer consequential incentives to induce businesses to locate in the jurisdictions they favor. The premise is that these businesses will hire workers and help local economies. Sometimes these inducements pay off. Often they don’t.

To find a toxic political situation we don’t have to go down to Washington. Kingston is much closer.

Twenty months into its Hudson Valley venture, the Norwegian Air’s business strategy at Stewart Airport appears to be increasingly successful. It is continuing to demonstrate that despite its location at an airport 65 miles north of New York City it can fill its planes for flights to and from Ireland and Scotland with paying discount passengers.

What would one say if one had to guess about the direction of Ulster County residential real estate in 2019? My guess for the asset class would be that 2019 will be about the same as 2018 — an encouraging and positive if not quite a spectacular year.

John Valk remembers when Catsmo established its salmon-smoking business in his town. “They had three employees, and now they’ve got more than 50,” he said.

The first week of 2019 brought an unprecedented number of political events in Ulster County that are sure to have a major influence on the way economic development is pursued.