Is Chautauqua County in a worse place than it was 15 years ago, as Democrats in the Chautauqua County Legislature contend?

The answer to that question depends on one’s point of view.

We’ve often said the government doesn’t, by itself, attract jobs. It does, however, set the stage to attract jobs. The county is in the midst of building two industrial parks – the controversial Ripley site near I-90 and another in Sheridan. We wholeheartedly support efforts to complete public sewers around Chautauqua Lake, a costly project that will help decrease nutrients entering the lake as the county and its partners try to decrease invasive weed growth and harmful algal blooms. The county and city of Dunkirk officials have set the stage for a new use for the former NRG power plant in Dunkirk – a development that has been a long time coming. The county has built and expanded a fly car system that is helping provide emergency services in areas where too many people were waiting too long for emergency medical services. That’s a major win – even if it comes with costs that are a driver of the additional county spending that we worry can be a future bank breaker.

At the same time we don’t disagree with legislative Democrats in their response to County Executive PJ Wendel’s State of the County address.

We’ve said in this space recently that economic development, particularly in the Jamestown area, often feels like we take one step forward and two steps backward. The county lands an Electrovaya and loses a Bush Industries, a Serta Mattress and a manufacturing line at SEFPRO. Given the amount of money the county is spending to provide temporary housing for the homeless it’s obvious the county is struggling with the effects of poverty and income levels that aren’t keeping up with inflation. Population loss has been a huge problem for longer than the 15-year timeframe the Democrats mentioned. County spending is increasing too quickly, in our view, as is the county’s property tax levy. We fear when the property value boom goes bust that the county may have buyer’s remorse on some of the new spending the administration and legislature have approved over the years.

Republicans can rightly claim accomplishments that are setting the stage for future plans that may pay off. Democrats can rightly claim that the county is struggling in some key areas. Two things can be true at the same time.

What we’d really like to see happen is Republicans and Democrats admit that there is truth in both the executive’s State of the County address and Democrats’ rebuttal rather than talking past each other simply because the points being made come in the political arena. Neither Republicans nor Democrats have the market cornered on having the smartest people in the room.

Is Chautauqua County worse off than it was 15 years ago? We don’t think so. We also don’t think it’s necessarily better off. The county is treading water. Perhaps that’s something we can all agree on.