Government and public spending has, can, and should play a role in moving Buffalo forward – out of its dead industrial past and into a knowledge-based future. Our excellent public university system molds and mentors the business leaders of tomorrow. They experiment and learn. They develop ideas, products, and services that may lay the foundation for future economic growth.

So, when the University at Buffalo finds its ambitious expansion plans stymied by a dysfunctional and downstate-heavy legislature, that doesn’t just adversely affect UB and SUNY. It harms Buffalo and WNY in general. Adding billions in local economic activity and tens of thousands of students, faculty, and researchers to our area would undoubtedly be a direct and immediate benefit, while the work and studying that they do could very well provide the region with benefits for years to come. UB was asking for autonomy, yes. But it was asking for autonomy in an order to expand, and to enter into cooperative agreements with private companies – freedoms that other states grant to their state universities, reflecting the fact that the worlds of business and academia advance when they work together.

UB2020 may or may not be the answer to all of Buffalo’s ills, but, typically, we’ll never know.