New York is jealous of our incubators

Aside from being jealous of our World Series rings, New York is also envious of our state’s spending on incubators, specifically BFTP, even as its fate is wavering on the winds of a state budget battle.
“Pennsylvania annually puts $20 million in taxpayer dollars toward new technology businesses…. So where is New York’s equivalent?” writes Matthew Daneman of the Democrat and Chronicle, a newspaper based out of Rochester, New York. A similar article also appeared in the Buffalo News.
But do they really want the cost?
The Economy League report that suggested for every $1 the state spent on BFTP $3.50 came back was more than called into question by Inquirer columnist Joe DiStefano.
The N.Y. article references another recent study, one by a Rochester-based venture fund that examined other state’s methods of supporting young startups, and Pennsylvania came out as one of the states worth emulating. The study fears that if support systems are not in place, startups will just flee to states like California and Massachusetts.
New York also trails the Keystone Sate in jobs created by venture capital funding.
Philadelphia is the 11th largest venture capital market in the country and features some of the country’s better early stage investment groups such as DreamIt Ventures and Ben Franklin Technology Partners. Early stage investments have kept the regions venture market afloat as traditional invesments plummited last quarter.