Video, Audio, Photos & Rush Transcript: Governor Hochul Celebrates $13 Million Investment From Anheuser-Busch to Central New York Brewery

Earlier today, Governor Hochul announced that Anheuser-Busch will be investing $13 million into the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Baldwinsville, NY to meet consumer demand and support local manufacturing.

VIDEO: The event is available to stream on YouTube here and TV quality video is available here (h.264, mp4).

AUDIO: The Governor's remarks are available in audio form here.

PHOTOS: The Governor's Flickr page will post photos of the event here.

A rush transcript of the Governor's remarks is available below:

Thank you, Ashley. Really pleased to be with you and the entire team here, your senior team who've joined us. I want to thank Melissa for all the great work she does at State Government Affairs. And of course, always good to see our great champion in Washington, our Congressman, John Mannion. Glad to see you be able to spend a little time back home here. Also, my partners in state government who've been recognized, our Senators and Assemblymembers. Rob Simpson, the CEO of CenterState. Where's Rob? Oh, there you go, Rob. Just want to thank you for all the work you do on driving economic development in this region, and certainly we are benefiting from your efforts.

And also, John Farrance — Joe Farrance with the Teamsters. I want to give Teamsters a round of applause and all of our brothers and sisters in labor for whom you work safely. You know, we're really proud. This isn't just a brewery, it's the largest brewery in New York State. The undisputed titan of making beer in the Empire State, and it helps anchor an entire region of our economy and fuels the livelihoods of hundreds and hundreds of employees.

But what really makes this place legendary in my mind is what happened here last winter. When massive snowstorms battered Buffalo and blanketed the legendary Highmark Stadium, they didn't just shovel snow, they packaged it up and shipped some of the snow from the Buffalo Bills stadium to this location, nowhere else in the world, and turned that great snow into beer. Creative genius. Creative genius here. And that was a big hit. First time in NFL history. I just want to put a plug, in fact, that we have a brand-new stadium that we did the groundbreaking for, and we open up for our opening day September 17.

And I'm going to go out on a limb and predict we might see a little more snow falling in the new Highmark Stadium. So gather up your buckets, and let's brew some more right here. But, I've been here a number of times, even when I was back as Lieutenant Governor, to come out and look at what you did to help drive down your carbon emissions with the solar arrays. And I just spoke about this to another company this morning. I said, "You should see what they're doing in Baldwinsville. They're so creative, and they're so attuned with their responsibility as, as corporate stewards of our environment, and have done a great job. I want to thank them.” Also, we've worked on a number of other projects helping you transition from natural gas to electric power, a million dollars from the state.

But today, this announcement – you're taking the next leap forward. It is showing your commitment to this region. And the individuals who you already know — I don't need to sell you on the quality of the workforce we have here in Central New York. They understand what a legacy job is all about, just like people might have worked at Carrier decades ago and the other upstate businesses that people went to. They earned a good paycheck, and the company takes care of them, they take care of the company, and they stay.

So that is what you've built here, that culture of pride, not just in the product, but the environment that you've created here. And people know that these are good jobs that should be treasured, and I want to thank you for looking at a way to expand the numbers by giving people the skills that they absolutely need to succeed here and elsewhere.

So this investment in training will help you create the jobs here. Technical training skills, I know MACNY — anybody else here from MACNY? Who's here from MACNY? Hi, how are you? — I want to thank you for everything you do. I've worked with you closely for many years, and as we try to rebuild the manufacturing base of Upstate New York.

Why this is important to me? You may have guessed, probably tipped it off earlier, but I'm from Buffalo. And I know what it was like when our industries, our legacy industries that people counted on, you know, good, hardworking union jobs that sustained families and lifted my family out of poverty when my dad and grandpa worked at the steel plant down the road. And when those businesses left, it was a hard hit for the region. So I've been committed as Governor, as the first upstate Governor in over 100 years, I understand what it was like in Syracuse and Rochester and Buffalo when the businesses left, and with them, they took the hope of the next generation.

But in investments like this, you stay with us for over 40 years, but not just resting on your laurels and saying, "We're not done yet. We believe in this facility. We believe in its people, and that's why we're making investments in the next generation of workers." So I want to thank you for that, for that belief, and I hope you feel that things are changing in upstate New York.

I mean, this has been an extraordinary summer. When I think about the fact that we did the groundbreaking for Micron, you may have heard of that little business coming down the road. But that, that's — I want to say that's 50,000 jobs — I think that's a lot of customers in that 50,000 jobs for Anheuser-Busch. And they should be told about the local pride of supporting the local commodities here. So, that's good for you. You know, we need to build the housing and the infrastructure and create the whole system that's going to support that, but that is epic. Epic. People know that we're the envy of the country because we were able to win Micron here.

This morning, I was in Rochester, over in Webster, announcing the largest dairy manufacturing facility in the northeast at Fairlife. $650 million project, 400 jobs, and they were looking to go elsewhere, and we landed them right here in Western New York, Finger Lakes region, and complementing what we do here.

So I told them about what you do. I tell you about what they do, and I hope you all feel that there's a resurgence here in Upstate. After many years of that sense of decline and depression and “What is the future going to be like?” The future has arrived. So I want to thank Anheuser-Busch once again for being that loyal partner that people in government need to be able to create jobs together, create the environment you need to succeed. And know this: I will be continuing to be with you and look forward to a can of Buffalo Blizzard beer as soon as I can get my hands on it. Thank you very much, everybody.

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