albanyweblog.com
Updated
October 22, 2006
State leaders not rushing to finalize AMD deal
Getting a binding agreement is not keyed to being done before Pataki leaves office at end of yearBy LARRY RULISON, Business writer
First published: Saturday, October 21, 2006ALBANY -- New York political leaders do not appear to be in a rush to get a binding agreement with Advanced Micro Devices Inc. done before Gov. George Pataki leaves office at the end of the year.
Back in June, Pataki unveiled a blockbuster deal in which AMD agreed to build a $3.2 billion computer-chip fabrication plant in Saratoga County in exchange for $1.2 billion in financial incentives. Ground is expected to be broken within three years, and the plant could be up and running by 2012.That deal is nonbinding, but both AMD and state leaders say they have been working on a binding agreement that will solidify the project. AMD, the No. 2 computer-chip manufacturer behind Intel Corp., is expected to buy 200 acres at the Luther Forest Technology Campus to build a state-of-the-art, 1.2 million-square-foot "chip fab" that would employ 1,205 people.
Republican Pataki is not running for re-election. New York Attorney General Eliot Spitzer, a Democrat, is the heavy favorite to become the next governor.
However, no one was saying this week that a deal with AMD has to be completed before a possible Spitzer administration takes over in January.
"We continue to work with AMD to finalize details of the project consistent with the framework that was articulated when the project was announced," Pataki spokeswoman Lynn Krogh said in a statement. "This is a complicated and important project that is moving forward along its own timeline, not a political one."
Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson said the Democrat has been in favor of the AMD deal, although she declined to discuss any timetable for the negotiations and how they might be impacted by the election.
"As a concept, he's been supportive of it in the past," she said.
AMD is continuing to negotiate with the state, company spokesman Jon Carvill said Thursday, but he declined to offer additional details.
Since the original agreement is nonbinding, it's possible that either side could demand changes to the size of the project or the incentive plan. But Kris Thompson, a spokesman for state Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, R-Brunswick, said the senator, one of the architects of the AMD deal, was not expecting any major changes when a final deal is reached.
"I think, for the most part, it's going to remain as originally crafted," he said.
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