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Local business leaders respond to Trump's suggestion about moving to other states to find jobs

 Downtown Rochester skyline view.
Max Schulte
/
WXXI News
Downtown Rochester skyline view.

Local business leaders are responding to comments made by President Trump about the economy in Upstate NY.

In an interview this week with the Wall Street Journal, Trump indicated that people ewho live in what he called 'upper New York state,'  and some other states will need to move to states like Wisconsin, Iowa and Colorado, which are adding manufacturing jobs.

At the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce, president and CEO Bob Duffy invited Trump or someone from his administration to visit this area. 

“I guarantee, he and his team will be blown away by what we have up in the Rochester and Finger Lakes region, manufacturing, very advanced manufacturing, our technology and our university brainpower here throughout the region is second to none.”

A leader at another local business group, Matt Hurlbutt, interim president and CEOof Greater Rochester Enterprise, also feels this area still has a lot to offer to manufacturers and other companies looking for a place to do business.

“I think we are a great place to do business and we’ve had a few recent announcements and we’ve got some other activity underway and part of the reason why we have that activity is because of the outstanding people we have in this region.”

Both Duffy and Hurlbutt feel New York State has made progress in trying to improve its business climate.

Trump's comments to the Wall Street Journal were part of an interview in which he noted that Apple committed to build three big plants  in the U.S. 

A spokesman for the  White House, asked for clarification of those comments by the Buffalo News, told the paper that Trump was referring to high taxes and an unfriendly business climate, among other things.

Randy Gorbman is WXXI's director of news and public affairs. Randy manages the day-to-day operations of WXXI News on radio, television, and online.