Economy/Jobs

Louise has worked hard throughout her career in public service to create jobs by supporting legislation to foster economic development, support small businesses, and provide companies with much needed research and technology funding.

She has fought for the needed Federal funding to help revitalize Rochester’s waterfront areas so they will become home to new businesses and jobs. Louise continues to work alongside local businesses to identify problems and develop solutions. She has secured the needed funding from the federal government to aid in carrying out community development programs that allow neighborhood businesses to prosper and create jobs.

Louise recognizes that for companies to continue to be competitive in today’s marketplace they must have access to the latest technology that help increase productivity and develop new products. She has fought to bring research grants to the district that ensure both large and small companies have access to the information that will help them grow and thrive in today’s economy.

Economic Development

• Over the past few years, Louise has secured almost $30 million for the redevelopment of Rochester’s waterfront. Additionally she has been instrumental in the addition of the Rochester-Toronto fast ferry service. When finished, this area will become a home to new businesses and a bustling tourist destination.
  
• Louise has also supported the funding requests that have reinvigorated Buffalo’s waterfront and local economy through the Inner/Outer Harbor Development projects.

Supporting Small Business

• Helped enact into permanent law the tax exemption for interest earned on small-issue industrial development bonds. These bonds are crucial in assisting small manufacturing firms to raise the needed capital to expand their production facilities.
  
• Obtained more than $22 million for the Rochester Institute of Technology’s Center for Integrated Manufacturing Studies. The Center was designed specifically to help small manufacturing firms to utilize and adapt new manufacturing methods so that they can be competitive in today’s global market.
  
• Ensured that the Bush Administration did not close the Rochester Small Business Administration office. This office is an important resource for businesses in the area.

Supporting Research and Technology

• Led efforts in the House to secure $12 million to start the Infotonics Center. This center brings together research efforts from companies and universities and allows them to build off of each other’s research. Over its first 10 years of operation, the center is projected to create 5,000 new jobs and many spin-off companies.
  
• Supported $4.5 million in federal funding for the University at Buffalo Center of Excellence in Bioinformatics which applies computational approaches to biology to speed up the drug discovery process.
  
• Secured $1.6 million to build a multi-use facility at the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus.
  
• Secured $6 million in federal funds to provide a permanent site for High Technology of Rochester’s (HTR) Lennox Tech Enterprise Center (TEC). HTR has helped 1,100 technology-based companies in the last ten years to survive their first years in business.