Dozens of leaders in the aerospace and defense industries gathered at LIU Post on Monday to hear U.S. Rep. Tom Suozzi’s pitch to bolster those areas on Long Island.
“My purpose today was threefold,” Suozzi said after the conference. “Number one was to educate people that we have this huge cluster of businesses here… number two was to start branding Long Island as ‘High Tech Island’… and number three is to build the networks between contractors – the Boeings, the Northrop Grummans, the Lockheeds, and the local chain contractors – so they know what they want from each other.”
The conference was attended by more than 300 people representing over 180 local suppliers. Speakers included Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Eric Chewing, Patricia McMahon of Northrop Grumman, Camille Geiger of Boeing and Dave Logan of BAE Systems.
Suozzi noted that Long Island has a long history with the aviation industry.
“This is the cradle of aviation,” he said. “This is where they built all the planes for World War II… it’s where Charles Lindbergh took off and went from New York to Paris.”
Suozzi’s congressional district receives more defense contracts than any other in the state, totaling about $1.7 billion, and Long Island as a whole receives $2.5 billion. But the area has been passed by other states like Virginia due to the high cost of business in New York. Gilead Zfira, the business development director for Queens-based Magellan Aerospace, said hourly rates and overhead costs have hurt the expansion of his company.
“On an hour-by-hour basis, we can’t compete with a lot of other industry hubs,” he said.
Suozzi acknowledged that the cost of business would be a hindrance, but said he believed the area’s strengths of innovation and collaboration could overcome that. His sentiment was echoed by Robert Botticelli, the chairman of the aerospace and defense industries advocacy group ADDAPT.
“There’s a lot of knowledge here,” he said. “With the aerospace industry, there’s lots of hurdles, lots of red tape. The biggest strength is that this is a very vibrant and old group of folks who have that knowledge base.”
Zfira said he was optimistic about the industry, saying that though it had fallen into disrepair on Long Island, there was still a lot of potential. But in order to reach that potential, Suozzi and other local politicians would have to deliver in Washington.
“The aerospace and defense hubs around the country exist because there was a lot of political involvement,” he said. “It can’t come together without political backing.”
After the conference, Suozzi answered a few questions on an issue that could mar economic development on Long Island: the Republican tax bill that is approaching completion in Congress.
“This is bad for our region, this is bad for our economy,” he said. “We have to keep fighting this. It’s not a Democratic or Republican issue. [Rep.] Lee Zeldin and [Rep.] Peter King, we’re all together saying that we want to fight this.”
