A Chautauqua County lawmaker is expressing concern that the county may not be investing enough money in job training.

During the county legislature meeting, officials were asked to vote in favor of a number of agreements with the county Industrial Development Agency for attraction and development of tourism-related businesses; the county IDA for business development, assistance and promotion; the county Region Economic Development Corporation for greenway development; the CREDC for tourism development and placemaking.

The last resolution had the county agreeing to spend $50,000 for 2026. None of the others listed a financial cost, although the money has been placed in the 2026 budget for them.

Lawmakers were also asked to authorize an agreement with the Small Business Development Center at Jamestown Community College, providing $59,719 for 2026 for “technical assistance” for start-up businesses.

Before the vote on the resolutions, Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, spoke out.

“None of these five resolutions – which use words such as attraction, development, business development, assistance, promotion – none of them offer any funds for job training,” he said.

See FUNDING, Page A3

Larson is a member of the legislature’s Planning and Economic Committee.

“I want our economic development committee to explore what is going on with JCC in terms of job training in the north county (and) what is the future of Job Corps in Cassadaga,” he said.

Larson continued, stating he believes in order to attract and retain businesses, “the county and its IDA offering some training and resources on a consistent annual basis is critical.”

Larson said although he is in support of the five resolutions, more money is needed to train individuals.

“The fact is, there really is no money in our $300 million 2026 budget for job training,” he said.

During a committee meeting the week before, Larson had brought up that none of the resolutions had funds for job training.

In that discussion, IDA Chief Executive Officer Mark Geise said they work with other agencies for job training, including JCC, the Dream It Do It Program and others.