John Cooney, Jr., executive director of the Construction Industry Council of Westchester & Hudson Valley, Inc., began the program by noting that the final state budget is expected to include an additional $800 million in highway funding and another $200-million increase in CHIPS program support.

Among the pressing issues facing the industry and the region is the lack of affordable, workforce housing. Mr. Cooney and others, including Rockland County Executive Ed Day, noted that if this crisis is not addressed, private investment that could land in the Mid-Hudson, will likely go elsewhere to a location that boasts an ample, available and qualified workforce.

Mr. Cooney then introduced a half-dozen political and organized labor officials from the Mid-Hudson region who discussed the leading projects underway or set to break ground. Also cited were numerous Project Labor Agreements secured or in negotiation throughout the area.

Rockland County Executive Day emphasized that housing is “a challenging issue” that is being tackled on a county level and vowed that the county, which is in good financial shape with a surplus, will continue to invest in its infrastructure and in its building trades. He also complimented all those involved, including the CIC, with the recent Hudson Valley Construction Career Day staged at the Rockland Community College in Suffern, NY.

Dutchess County Assistant Couty Executive Ron Hicks also pointed to the need for workforce housing and its effects in his county. He said Dutchess has established a $12-million Housing Trust Fund to incentivize the creation of workforce housing. Dutchess, which he admitted was not a union-friendly county some years back, has recently agreed to its third Project Labor Agreement totaling approximately $250 million of work for the area’s building trades.

Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus discussed promising negotiations the county is having with political and business leaders from Taiwan regarding investments in semiconductor manufacturing in Orange County. Mr. Neuhaus was very confident that a deal with a Taiwanese firm will be finalized in the future. A few days following the HVCIP event, Mr. Neuhaus announced that Orange County had officially entered a Sister City partnership with Kaohsiung City, Taiwan.

The program was rounded out by reports from Hudson Valley Building & Construction Trades Council President L. Todd Diorio, Edward Cooke, Vice President of the Building and Construction Trades Council of Westchester & Putnam Counties, and Stephen Reich, co-vice president of the Building & Construction Trades Council of Rockland County, who each detailed major projects in the pipeline in their jurisdictions.

For extensive coverage of the HVCIP event, see the May 2025 edition of CONSTRUCTION NEWS.

Published: April 23, 2025