SoBRO: South Bronx Overall Economic Development Corporation

On April 28, SoBRO welcomed New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli as a special guest speaker at SoBRO’s latest South Bronx Leadership Forum (SBLF). The SBLF is a recurring event that provides a platform for sharing issues in public policy, governance, and small enterprise management relevant to the Bronx area. This year’s SBLFs were sponsored by the companies JP Morgan Chase and Paychex. Comptroller DiNapoli’s topic of discussion was “The State Budget: Balancing Need and Priorities.”

Despite the stormy weather, over 50 South Bronx entrepreneurs, residents, and representatives from the private and non-profit sectors gathered at the SoBRO Center to hear Comptroller DiNapoli’s remarks about the State’s budget challenges. DiNapoli described the current economic conditions as “a mixed picture,” pointing out that while several thousand private sector jobs were added in the last quarter, unemployment still remained uncomfortably high.

According to DiNapoli, the State’s private sector added 122,700 jobs over the last year. “It’s an encouraging start,” he observed, “but we need to remember that it still only represents one quarter of the 336,700 jobs we lost between April 2008 and December 2009.” The State Comptroller, who is New York’s chief fiscal officer, further cautioned that, while New York City’s economy is coming back from the recession, the Bronx is still struggling. “As of March,” DiNapoli said, “state unemployment stood at 8.0%. New York City [is at] 8.4%, but here in the Bronx, unemployment is still an unacceptable 11.7%, the highest of New York’s 62 counties.”

Comptroller DiNapoli explained his view that the State budget was a “responsible step” to trim the $10 billion budget shortfall and realign revenue with spending. “The Federal stimulus money has been spent,” he explained, “and unfortunately, the State does not have the ability to print money.” Still, the cuts will be felt acutely in the coming year, especially in the health care and education sectors.

The state budget is double-edged, DiNapoli emphasized. “On the positive side, it is balanced and on-time for the first time in years, and it doesn’t rely heavily on new taxes, fees or one-time revenues, the so-called one-shots. And this is a step in the right direction. That said, you can’t make $10 billion in cuts without pain. Those cuts will be felt in the South Bronx and in communities across the state.”

The tough budget reflects the economic times. DiNapoli intoned Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. who, he said, once wrote: “The best way to solve any problem is to remove its cause.” According to DiNapoli, we need to “target our investments to help create new opportunities in every community. To do that, we need to tap the expertise of organizations like SOBRO that have been successfully empowering people and communities for decades.”

Two final observations from Comptroller DiNapoli generated moderate amounts of optimism for the morning. The first was that economic recovery would most likely be led by small businesses and entrepreneurs. Agencies such as the New York Business Development Corporation, he explained, exist to provide loans to small businesses in New York State which push the economy forward. Second, DiNapoli pointed out the existence of the New York State Office of Unclaimed Funds, where over $10 billion in unclaimed money from businesses and citizens sits in wait of retrieval. As it turned out, DiNapoli found that the office possesses just over $1,300 of SoBRO’s unclaimed funds, which is available for collection at any time. In these times of economic uncertainty, SoBRO indeed welcomed the bit of good news.

Click here to see New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli (center) flanked by Lourdes Zapata, SoBRO's Senior Vice President of Community & Economic Development, and Phillip Morrow, SoBRO's President & CEO.