Kate Ebersbach spent her 20s working with horses in upstate New York. But the pay was never enough to build a livelihood. At 32, Ebersbach moved back into her childhood home outside Syracuse. It’s not ideal living with her parents, but the arrangement made it possible for her to go back to school.
Ebersbach is hoping that a career change might allow her to get her own place.
When she heard that Micron Technologies, which manufactures memory chips, was building a massive factory in nearby Clay, she started studying electromechanical technology at Onondaga Community College.
“I actually looked up what they do in the semiconductor industry and fell in love with it and decided that that's what I wanted to do with my life,” Ebersbach said. “I wanted more money and stability, so I decided to switch careers.”
Some of Ebersbach’s former classmates from Baker High School faced a similar squeeze — working low-paying jobs close to home or moving to other states for better opportunities. Indeed, 1 million New Yorkers have moved across state lines since 2020, seeking a more affordable living equation in places like Florida, New Jersey and Connecticut.
This is the second installment of "New York State of Unaffordability," a podcast by WNYC and Gothamist that examines why. The four-part series explores the major economic hardships facing residents and highlights the very different solutions being offered by Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul and her Republican challenger, Nassau County Executive Bruce Blakeman.
Finding a good-paying job is one of those challenges, particularly in areas of Upstate New York that are still grappling with the effects of deindustrialization. The city of Syracuse shrunk by more than a third between 1950 and 2020 as factories closed.
Hochul, who became governor in 2021 and is seeking a second full term, says she wants to reverse the economic decline that she witnessed growing up in Buffalo. She has directed billions of dollars to help the semiconductor industry in upstate New York. Micron, which has pledged to create 50,000 jobs, is in line to receive up to $5.5 billion in state incentives.
“This is the culmination of dreams that I've had for a long time,” the governor said in July during a concrete-pouring ceremony at the Micron site. “We're going to get thousands more people hired, create more opportunities for families, young people born in this community to be able to stay here and have jobs.”
Blakeman has said his approach to economic development would involve reducing regulations in order to help private companies stay and expand their operations.
He said he would legalize natural gas hydrofracking, which the state banned in 2014 over concerns about its effects on the environment, including New York City’s reservoirs. He’s also criticized the governor’s year-long moratorium on large data center developments.
“Creating jobs is very, very simple. You've got to make it inviting for businesses to locate here in New York state or remain in New York state,” Blakeman said in an interview. “An unfriendly atmosphere, a hostile atmosphere to businesses — that's why they're not locating here.”
Blakeman’s campaign pointed to a study by the American Legislative Exchange Council, a right-leaning policy group, which ranked New York 50th for economic development climate, in part because millionaires in New York City pay the highest combined state and local tax rate in the country.
Blakeman and his GOP allies have also argued that it was President Donald Trump and Ryan McMahon, the local Republican leader — and not Hochul — who deserve credit for the Micron project and other investments in domestic manufacturing.
Hochul’s aides have trumpeted news released in September that shows New York’s gross domestic product grew by nearly double the national average over the summer. The unemployment rate in the state was 4.3% as of August, the most recent month available, slightly ahead of the 4.1% nationwide average.
During a debate this month, Hochul said that Blakeman is for unfettered industry — a charge the Nassau executive sharply denied.
“You want oil and gas rigs all over upstate New York,” she said. “You want smokestacks everywhere."
