Legislator Fred Larson, D-Jamestown, wants the Chautauqua County Legislature to declare job creation as its number one goal. The topic will be discussed in July.

MAYVILLE – Fred Larson is continuing his push to make job creation the number one goal of the Chautauqua County Legislature.

Larson, D-Jamestown, prefiled a resolution for Wednesday night’s Chautauqua County Legislature meeting entitled “Declaring Job Creation the Number One Economic Development Goal.”

The resolution was not reviewed by any of the legislature committees in June and was sent to committee for review for a possible vote next month.

During the discussion, Larson said he felt the resolution was simple enough to not need to be reviewed in committee.

He read the entire resolution which only has four “whereas” clauses and two “resolved” clauses.

In it, the resolution notes jobs lost Bush Industries, Serta Mattress, Truck Lite, Monofrax, Carriage House and Petri Baking, totaling around 1,500 positions.

The resolution also states that Chautauqua County has lost more population since the 2010 Census at the highest rate of any Western New York county.

The resolution, which hasn’t been passed, states that the county is “declaring job creation as the number one goal and calls for government grants, Payment in lieu of tax agreements (PILOTS), exemptions from sales taxes and mortgage taxes, low interest loans and taxpayer-funded infrastructure improvements be directed at private investment that will create jobs for our residents.”

Last year, when the county legislature set goals and objectives for the county Planning Department, Larson wanted to have “job creation” listed as the number one goal.

His proposal was rejected.

A month later fellow Democratic legislator Bob Bankoski of Dunkirk introduced a resolution “Declaring Job Growth as the Number One Goal of County Economic Development Efforts for 2026-2029.”

Before a vote was held on that resolution, Republicans introduced a substitute resolution. That modified resolution stated the county Industrial Development Agency and the county legislature “will continue to make job creation and retention by businesses a top priority, with the understanding that the CCIDA, not the County’s Department of Planning & Development, has the tools and resources and is uniquely qualified to fulfill this objective.”

On Wednesday, Larson said he did not want to see his resolution sent to committee, arguing that Republicans will water it down like they did with Bankoski’s resolution. “I just don’t understand what the Republican Economic Development Committee is going to do other than take my simple declarative resolution, containing only facts, and turn it into another 2026 monstrosity that’s filled with excuses and misleading information, and refusing to have this government go on record as making the addition of new employment, new jobs, new companies our number one economic development priority,” he said.

The legislature’s Planning and Economic Development Committee has four Republicans on it and one Democrat. Larson was previously a member of the committee but was reassigned at the beginning of the year.

Larson implied he was upset about his committee reassignment when he was invited to attend the July Planning and Economic Development Committee meeting to discuss his resolution. “I won’t be attending a committee that I served on about six or seven times under Republican chairmans, going back to ’86, that I no longer serve on,” he said.

Still, Legislator Bob Scudder, R-Fredonia, noted the resolution introduced by Larson is not an emergency and should be reviewed before a final vote. “That’s our general way of proceeding. We’ve sent other resolutions … to committee that haven’t come through here,” he said.

Larson admitted that if it does go to committee, it will bring further attention to the issue. “I should be happy to have you send it to committee because the newspaper and the radio can talk about this issue in July as well as June. That suits my purposes,” he said, adding, “But I’d rather this body acknowledge that our people, our young people, our young families, the 230 people that lost their jobs at Bush a month or so ago, a certain percentage of them are going to leave this community.”

The vote to send the resolution to committee passed along partisan lines, with the 12 Republican legislators voting in favor and the 7 Democrats voting no.