NORWICH – As he has for the past 13 years, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer, D-Binghamton, paid his annual visit to Chenango County to assess some of the roadblocks facing local businesses and to determine what he can do in Washington to find solutions to them.

Those attending the round table discussion held at the Chenango County Council of the Arts Monday afternoon included executives from the Raymond Corporation, Unison Industries, Chenango Memorial Hospital and Commerce Chenango. Chenango County and City of Norwich officials also participated.

The stock market took another nose dive Monday, shedding 14 percent over the past two weeks combined, and the Senator took a moment to reflect on that. He said he found the notion that the country could default on its debt obligations without consequences – as members of the Tea Party in Congress have suggested – “confounding.”

“They have been proven wrong. We are like a blindfolded mass walking toward a cliff. If we keep walking in this same direction, we are going to fall off,” he said.

To control the debt, Schumer suggested getting a handle on spending and creating jobs through education, innovation and research.

Unison

On a local level, Gary Cummings of Unison Industries, the aircraft engine electrical and mechanical systems manufacturer in Norwich, asked the Senator to keep pushing Congress for General Electric’s F136 engine for Lockheed Martin’s F35 Joint Strike Fighter. Between 25 and 30 percent of Unison’s business in Norwich is for GE, including manufacturing parts for the fighter plane.

Despite calls from some in Congress, and also from the President, that building both GE’s F136 and Pratt and Whitney’s F135 engine, which is also being designed for Lockheed, are unnecessary and cost prohibitive for the military, GE has decided to take a risk and continue funding its own plane’s development through 2012, the company’s director of operations said.

“I’m asking when it will go into production?” Cummings asked the Senator, “and to say that we just want to compete” for the U.S. military’s business.

Schumer said GE “has made a very strong argument” about the need for two striker aircraft. “Competition tends to keep the cost down for all,” he said, “and that’s where my support lies. I’m confident we can get this done.”

Cummings said Unison currently employs 330. With the manufacturing schedule planned, it could add another 60 engineers by year’s end and another 70 in 2012.

Raymond

The chief executive officer of Greene-based Raymond Corporation described his business as “fragile.”

Market share for the global forklift manufacturer declined by 60 percent during the recession, and only recovered about 34 to 35 percent last year, according to Raymond CEO and President James J. Malvaso. He told the Senator that the nation’s corporate tax structure – being the highest in world – and unfair trade policies with countries abroad made it difficult to do business.

He pointed to China’s cost advantage in trade policies, with zero tariff for products coming into the United States but a 9 percent tariff on American-made products exported to China.

Raymond is currently building a plant in China, but the chief executive said the company has no plans to relocate.

“But if the infrastructure in the state and climate for doing business doesn’t change, they are going to force our hand. We have seen some good signs from the Governor’s office, and give him the benefit of the doubt. The past two governors didn’t do a lot for us,” said Malvaso prior to Schumer’s arrival.

“We don’t want state money for anything, we just want an environment to produce, provide benefits to our workers, work on environmentally conscientious ways of doing things, build infrastructure and grow here.”

Schumer said he is pushing for closing some of the loopholes of the corporate tax structure and invited Malvaso to speak privately after the meeting about fair trade versus free trade.

Raymond, a $1.7 billion globally competitive company that is owned by Toyota Industries, employs 1,100 currently and has 100 open requisitions for product. The company has plans to add approximately another 200 employees in Greene.

Other roadblocks include a rapidly deteriorating and dangerous state Rt. 12 and the inability to tap into the county’s natural gas reserves for energy, said Mavaso.

“We’ve become a consumption economy rather than a production economy,” he concluded. Schumer said he often uses the same refrain.

Farm Bureau