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New York State Electric And Gas Corporation Business Information, Profile, and History

4500 Vestal Parkway East
PO Box 3607
Binghamton, New York 13902-3607
U.S.A.

History of New York State Electric And Gas Corporation

New York State Electric and Gas Corporation (NYSEG) serves central, eastern, and western New York State, an area which, though mostly rural, includes the cities of Binghamton, Elmira, Corning, and Ithaca. Its territory includes one-third of the state's land area and a tenth of its population. With more than 775,000 electric customers and almost 220,000 gas customers, NYSEG serves a diversified population of industry, agriculture, recreational facilities, and colleges and universities.

NYSEG traces its history back to October 28, 1852, when six Ithaca businessmen pledged a total of $75,000 and incorporated as the Ithaca Gas Light Company. The fledgling company soon laid mains and built a coal gas plant. In 1853 Ithaca's streets saw their first lamps.

In the thirty years following the founding of Ithaca Gas Light, the use of methane gas grew steadily. Street lighting was extended beyond affluent business districts, while homeowners and businesses obtained lights for evening hours.

However, beginning in the late 1870s and early 1880s, entrepreneurs began promoting the recently invented electric arc light as a superior and brighter street lighting system. In conjunction with the Brush-Electric Company and the Thomson-Houston Company, local businessmen financed arc lighting ventures in Geneva, Elmira, Binghamton, Ithaca, Auburn, and a variety of smaller New York State communities.

By the 1890s, the invention of the incandescent bulb, the central generating station, and alternating current spelled the eventual doom for the gas lighting business. Ithaca Gas Light officials saw what was happening and, showing a foresight uncommon among gas-lighting companies, began buying local electric companies.

In 1910 Ithaca Gas Light itself was acquired by Associated Gas & Electric, a utility holding company that had already consolidated several area utilities including the rival Ithaca Electric Light and Power Company. According to the official NYSEG History, during the first quarter of this century, more than 240 local companies or interests were absorbed, either directly by Ithaca Gas Light or by other utility companies that later combined to form the present company. Among the most prominent of these were Eastern New York Electric & Gas Corporation; New York Central Electric Corporation; Elmira Water, Light & Railroad Company; Binghamton Light, Heat & Power Company; Western New York Gas & Electric Corporation; and Empire Gas & Electric Company.

The company's growth was reflected in repeated name changes. In 1916 it became Ithaca Gas & Electric, in 1918 New York State Gas and Electric, in 1928 New York Electric Corporation, and in 1929, it was dubbed New York State Electric & Gas Corporation. By 1937 the company had reached its present service area size of about 35 percent of the state.

As a growing firm, the company needed new sources of power and better billing methods. Initially, electricity was generated by relatively small coal-fired turbines, and customers were billed a flat rate for each bulb no matter how much electricity they used. As demand grew, especially because of the growth of electric trolleys, the company built or acquired progressively larger steam generating plants. Likewise with increasing financial sophistication, a system of use-based metering was installed.

The trolley era soon passed in the United States. But despite the disappearance of one of its biggest customers, NYSEG continued to experience growth in demand. Service, which initially had been limited to evening hours, was expanded to twenty-four hours a day. Electric appliances became popular. Farmers used electricity to shorten egg-laying cycles, and both industry and business eventually found electrical service indispensable.

In response to increasing demand, the company built a series of large diesel and coal-fired generators. In 1917 it completed Goudey Station in Binghamton. The first unit of its 163,000 kilowatt Greenidge plant followed in 1938, the first unit of its 73,000 kilowatt Jennison Station was brought on line in 1945, and the first unit of its 87,000 kilowatt Hickling Station was completed in 1948.

While NYSEG executives dealt with the everyday activities of the electric company, ultimate control was maintained by the holding company, General Public Utilities Corporation. In 1935, Congress passed the Public Utilities Holding Company Act, which limited holding companies to one integrated utility system and in general led holding companies to divest the utilities they controlled. In NYSEG's case, divestment was delayed by World War II. Finally, in 1949, General Public Utilities Corporation sold all 880,000 shares of company stock to the public, making NYSEG an independent, investor-owned utility.

To run the company, the newly independent board of directors recruited Joseph M. Bell, Jr., who had previously been in the corporate financing, utility engineering, and consulting businesses in New York City. Bell came to power amidst the postwar economic expansion, which for electric utilities translated into increased demand. In 1951 he built an addition to the Hickling plant. Then, in 1955 and 1958, he completed the two units of the 318,000 kilowatt Milliken plant on Cayuga Lake. By the end of the decade, revenues exceeded $100 million and earnings surpassed $5.7 million.

Bell's ambitious construction program satisfied demand for the remainder of the decade and through much of the 1960s. In fact it was not until 1965--when NYSEG and the Pennsylvania Electric Company began construction of a 1,910,000 kilowatt, three-unit plant at the mouth of a coal mine in Homer City, Pennsylvania, with two units to come on line in 1969 and the third in 1977--that the company again began building.

On November 9, 1965, a massive power failure hit the Northeast. In its wake, NYSEG and the other major New York State utilities began searching for ways to avoid future blackouts. In July 1966 they formed the New York Power Pool to insure greater reliability and assist members in buying electricity during periods of peak demand. The following year they announced they would build what the Wall Street Journal called 'a single energy control center near Albany to control all their generation and long-distance transmission of electricity.'

This spirit of cooperation remained in the air, and in June 1967 NYSEG executives and executives of Syracuse-based Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation announced they were considering a merger. The two companies initiated studies of the proposal but, with the help of Chicago consulting firm Duff & Phelps, concluded that the high cost of credit and the degree to which NYSEG and Niagara Mohawk were already cooperating made merger both financially unattractive and, from a cost cutting standpoint, unnecessary.

Meanwhile, the far-reaching effects of the blackout had revealed the accuracy of energy requirement projections: the company needed new generating capacity to satisfy future demand. In March 1967 NYSEG president William Lyons announced plans to build a nuclear generating plant. The following May, the company released details of a proposed $135 million 830,000-kilowatt facility. Scheduled to go into operation in May 1973, what became known as Bell Station would be built on Cayuga Lake, 16 miles north of Ithaca, using a General Electric reactor and turbine.

Lyons, who became chief executive officer on July 1, 1968, was a believer in nuclear power. His term was marked by a variety of attempts to build nuclear power plants, most of which were thwarted by environmentalists, regulatory authorities, or rising costs.

In April 1969 a controversy over 'thermal pollution' led him to postpone construction at Bell Station. NYSEG had planned to discharge hot water directly into Cayuga Lake. Environmentalists protested that such a discharge would adversely affect the lake's ecosystem and wanted the utility to build cooling towers instead. In announcing the postponement, Lyons said that the ultimate plan for the plant must 'provide assurance of protection of Cayuga Lake' and also be 'economically practical.'

Because two units of the Homer City coal plant had gone on line in 1969, the supply of electric power was not immediately pressing. The supply of natural gas, however, posed a problem. NYSEG was still distributing natural gas, and in 1970 nationwide shortages of developed natural gas led pipeline operators to limit new sales commitments. NYSEG's first reaction was to announce it might decline to accept new industrial gas customers whose annual needs exceeded 12 million cubic feet. The situation worsened, and on December 30, 1974, New York state officials ordered the company to stop accepting any new gas customers.

The early 1970s was a time of economic difficulty for United States utilities. Between 1969 and 1971 coal prices rose 45 percent. Rising interest rates caused higher capital costs, and down time at Homer City pressured earnings. In view of this combination of events, the company asked for and received rate relief.

In July 1973 Lyons finally abandoned the Bell Station nuclear power plant. Environmental concerns and expected legal and regulatory delays had weighed heavily against pressing forward. 'It is our judgment,' read a company statement, 'that the necessary regulatory approval cannot be obtained in a time frame which would permit the operation of the plant when it will be needed to meet the energy requirements of our service area.' The company claimed it planned to build a conventional, coal-fired generating plant on the same site, but no such plant was ever built.

NYSEG's nuclear woes were not uncommon. New York State's other major utilities also were experiencing complications in getting new generating facilities financed and approved. Hoping for strength in numbers, the seven largest New York State utilities formed Empire State Power Resources, Inc. in April 1974. Never approved by regulators, the proposed company's purpose would have been to build and finance new power plants.

Despite its previous nuclear setback, on June 4, 1975, NYSEG announced it had become an 18 percent partner in Niagara Mohawk Power Corporation's 1.1 million-kilowatt Nine Mile Point No. 2 atomic unit. Projected to cost $1.1 billion and begin operations in 1982, the Nine Mile plant had already been delayed for over a year when NYSEG joined the project.

A month later the company revised previous plans to build a two-unit nuclear power plant at Somerset, New York, and announced it would instead build a coal-fired plant at a nearby site where a geological fault had been found.

The following February, NYSEG and the Long Island Lighting Company signed agreements to buy half interests in nuclear power facilities each planned to build. At the time of the signing, none of these proposed plants had yet received construction clearance. NYSEG never became a participant in any of them.

While Lyons and NYSEG president Wells P. Allen, Jr. worked to build new generating capacity, the natural gas shortage worsened. In January 1977 NYSEG was forced to curtail deliveries to customers in some 30 industries. The company scrambled to find supplementary sources and eventually paid four to five times the wholesale price to obtain supplies of gas from Brooklyn Union Gas and Algonquin Gas Transmission Co., an affiliate of Eastern Gas & Fuel Associates.

In 1977 Charles F. Kennedy became NYSEG chairman and chief executive officer. A board member since 1955, he first joined the company in March 1974 as executive vice president of administration. As of 1978, revenues exceeded $500 million for the first time. The following year, the company began construction of Somerset Station, its first large new generation facility since the first two units of Homer City were completed in 1969.

At 850,000 kilowatts, the coal-fired Somerset was also the first generating plant into which NYSEG fully figured environmental costs. Expected to cost $980 million (later increased to $1.051 billion), the project included a $300 million wet-limestone scrubber designed to remove sulfur dioxide from exhaust gasses. In the scrubbing process, a limestone slurry (mixture of limestone--chiefly composed of calcium carbonate--in water) is combined with flue gases to produce calcium sulfite, which is then mixed with fly ash and lime and buried in a large on-site solid waste disposal area. The Somerset plans also included a $60 million 16-mile company owned railroad to connect the plant with mainline rail facilities and four 90-car trains to bring coal from mines in southwestern Pennsylvania and West Virginia.

The ambitious building program the company had attempted to pursue was based on projections of rapidly increasing demand. After electric sales fell three percent in 1982, executives began to reassess future needs. They saw that while 1982's decline was in part a function of the recession, future demand would probably not grow at the same rate it had in most of the postwar period.

Late in 1982, the company began to show the kind of enlightened corporate citizenship it came to be known for later in the decade. It joined the American Red Cross in project SHARE which helps needy elderly and disabled customers overcome energy emergencies.

In May 1983 Wells P. Allen, president since 1976, advanced to the posts of chairman and chief executive officer. Allen was the first chief executive since William Lyons to see the completion of new electric generating capacity. In 1983 the company completed the largest of its nine hydroelectric plants, the 16.8 megawatt Upper Mechanicsville Hydro Station on the Hudson River north of Albany.

The following year NYSEG completed Somerset Station (now known as Kintigh Station, having been renamed after the company's later president, Allen E. Kintigh) on Lake Ontario in Niagara County. Despite having some of the nation's most advanced environmental protection equipment, Somerset was completed ten weeks early and $70 million under budget. The same year NYSEG surpassed $1 billion in revenues for the first time.

Allen was not so fortunate with the Nine Mile Point 2 nuclear plant. Delays and costs spiraled out of control. The Public Service Commission looked on suspiciously and let it be known it did not consider all the plant's costs prudent and recoverable. In 1986 the utilities proposed to cap recoverable costs at $4.45 billion in exchange for an agreement for the Public Service Commission to drop a two-year inquiry into alleged mismanagement of the plant's construction. When the commission finally capped costs at $4.16 billion, Standard & Poor's put NYSEG securities on its CreditWatch list.

The commission's decision had a direct effect on NYSEG's bottom line. In 1986 higher electric sales and reduced capital costs had led NYSEG to record earnings of $3.86 per share. After the Public Service Commission capped recoverable costs, NYSEG wrote off $382 million and reduced its quarterly dividend from 66 to 50 cents, marking the company's first ever lowering of dividends. By year's end NYSEG was $191 million in the red. The Nine Mile Point 2 plant was finally put in service in spring 1988, with NYSEG receiving 196,000 kilowatts of the generated power.

In the late 1980s and early 1990s, the company returned to financial health. It found its place in the community and reassessed its potential for growth. In an innovative program, NYSEG customer representatives helped indigent or disabled customers navigate the social welfare system and obtain aid to pay their electric bills.

In 1989 the company examined its potential for growth through a planning program called 'NYSEG 2000: A Vision for the Future.' Executives explored ways the company's potential could be maximized and decided to target the natural gas business. In a 1990 letter to stockholders, chairman and chief executive officer James A. Carrigg and President Kintigh described a natural gas strategy of 'aggressive marketing, emphasis on adding new franchises and various service activities closely related to natural gas distribution, coupled with a continued effort to reduce purchased natural gas costs.'

As a first step in this process, NYSEG acquired Columbia Gas of New York, Inc. in April 1991, from Columbia Gas System, Inc., for $57.5 million. Based in Binghamton like NYSEG, Columbia Gas of New York's 68,000 customers increased NYSEG's natural gas customer count by 40 percent.

Along with improving its natural gas business, NYSEG is searching for ways to comply with the Clean Air Act amendments of 1990, which require it to reduce sulfur dioxide emissions from 138,000 tons in 1989 to 70,000 tons by the year 2000.

Principal Subsidiaries: Somerset Railroad Corp.

Related information about New York

pop (2000e) 18 976 500; area 127 185 km²/49 108 sq mi. State in NE USA, divided into 62 counties; the ‘Empire State’; second most populous state; one of the original states of the Union, 11th to ratify the Federal Constitution, 1788; explored by Hudson and Champlain, 1609; Dutch established posts near Albany, 1614, settled Manhattan, 1626; New Netherlands taken by the British, 1664; scene of several battles in the American Revolution (eg Saratoga); capital, Albany; other chief cities, New York City, Syracuse, Yonkers, Rochester, Buffalo; Hudson R flows S through the E state, St Lawrence R part of the N border, Delaware R part of the S border; Niagara Falls in W; Adirondack Mts rise in the N, Catskill Mts in the S; highest point in the Adirondacks at Mt Marcy (1629 m/5344 ft); state contains 11 334 km²/4375 sq mi of the Great Lakes, as well as L Oneida and the Finger Lakes in the C; extensive woodland and forest in the NE, elsewhere a mixture of cropland, pasture, and woodland; clothing, pharmaceuticals, publishing, electronics, automotive and aircraft components; dairy products, corn, beef; New York City the chief ethnically mixed centre of population in the USA.

text-align:center;">The Empire State

State animal	Beaver(Castor canadensis)
State bird	Eastern Bluebird(Sialia sialis)
State freshwater fish	Brook Trout
State saltwater fish	Striped Bass
State insect	Ladybug
State flower	Rose(Rosa)
State motto	"Excelsior!"
State song	"I Love New York"
State tree	Sugar Maple(Acer saccharum)
State fossil	Sea Scorpion(Eurypterus remipes)
State gem	Garnet
State beverage	Milk
State reptile	Snapping Turtle
State fruit	Apple
State shell	Bay Scallop
State muffin	Apple Muffin

New York is a state in the northeastern United States.

Geography

New York's borders touch (clockwise from the northwest) two Great Lakes (Erie and Ontario, which are connected by the Niagara River); the provinces of Ontario and Quebec in Canada; three New England states (Vermont, Massachusetts, and Connecticut); the Atlantic Ocean, and two Mid-Atlantic states (New Jersey and Pennsylvania). In addition, Rhode Island shares a water border with New York.

New York is also the site of the only extra-territorial enclave within the boundaries of the U.S., the United Nations compound on Manhattan's East River.

The southern tip of New York State—New York City, its suburbs including Long Island, and the southern portion of the Hudson Valley—can be considered to form the central core of a "megalopolis," a super-city stretching from the northern suburbs of Boston to the southern suburbs of Jean Gottmann in 1961 as a new phenomenon in the history of world urbanization, the megalopolis is characterized by a coalescence of previous already-large cities of the Eastern Seaboard: a heavy specialization on tertiary activity related to government, trade, law, education, finance, publishing and control of economic activity; Several other groups of megalopolis-type super-cities exist in the world, but that centered around New York City was the first described and still is the best example.

While the state is best known for New York City's urban atmosphere, especially Manhattan's skyscrapers, most of the state is in fact dominated by farms, forests, rivers, mountains, and lakes. New York's Adirondack State Park is larger than any U.S. National Park outside of Alaska. The Hudson River begins with Lake Tear of the Clouds and flows south through the eastern part of the state without draining Lakes George or Champlain. Four of New York City's five boroughs are on the three islands at the mouth of the Hudson River: Manhattan Island, Staten Island, and Long Island.

"Upstate" is a common term for New York State counties north of suburban Westchester and Rockland counties. Upstate New York typically includes the Catskill and Adirondack Mountains, the Shawangunk Ridge, the Finger Lakes and the Great Lakes in the west; and Lake Champlain, Lake George, and Oneida Lake in the northeast; and rivers such as the Delaware, Genesee, Hudson, Mohawk, and Susquehanna. Lenape in canoes met Giovanni da Verrazzano, the first European explorer to enter New York Harbor, in 1524. Giovanni da Verrazzano named this place New Angouleme (Nouvelle Angoulême in french) in the honor of the French king Francis I ('François 1er' in french).
(Believed to be after this event) A French explorer and mapper, Samuel de Champlain, described his explorations through New York in 1608. A year later Henry Hudson, an Englishman working for the Dutch, claimed the area in the name of the Netherlands.

Early settlement

The first European settlers in the area now known as the State of New York were Dutch settlers in the colony known as New Amsterdam, beginning in 1613. The English traded the modern-day country of Suriname for New Amsterdam in 1664; The colony, then called the Province of New York, was divided into twelve counties, each of which was subdivided into towns. Two of New York's eastern coastal counties, Cornwall and Dukes, later became parts of Massachusetts and Maine.

Statehood

New York was one of the original thirteen colonies that became the United States. It was the 11th state to ratify the United States Constitution, on July 26, 1788.

Origin

The Dutch, who began to establish trading-posts on the Hudson River in 1613, claimed jurisdiction over the territory between the Connecticut and the Delaware Rivers, which they called New Netherlands. The government was vested in "The United New Netherland Company," chartered in 1614, and then in "The Dutch West India Company," chartered in 1622.

In 1649, a convention of the settlers petitioned the "Lords States-General of the United Netherlands" to grant them "suitable burgher government, such as their High Mightinesses shall consider adapted to this province, and resembling somewhat the government of our Fatherland," with certain permanent privileges and exemptions, that they might pursue "the trade of our country, as well along the coast from Terra Nova to Cape Florida as to the West Indies and Europe, whenever our Lord God shall be pleased to permit."

The directors of the West India Company resented this attempt to shake their rule and wrote their director and council at New Amsterdam: "We have already connived as much as possible at the many impertinences of some restless spirits, in the hope that they might be shamed by our discreetness and benevolence, but, perceiving that all kindnesses do not avail, we must, therefore, have recourse to God to Nature and the Law. We accordingly hereby charge and command your Honors whenever you shall certainly discover any Clandestine Meetings, Conventicles or machinations against our States government or that of our country that you proceed against such malignants in proportion to their crimes."

These grants embraced all the lands between the west bank of the Connecticut River and the east bank of the Delaware.

The Duke of York previously purchased in 1663 the grant of Long Island and other islands on the New England coast made in 1635 to the Earl of Stirling, and in 1664 he equipped an armed expedition which took possession of New Amsterdam, which was thenceforth called New York. This constitution was framed by a convention which assembled at White Plains, New York on July 10, 1776, and after repeated adjournments and changes of location, terminated its labors at Kingston, New York on Sunday evening, April 20, 1777, when the constitution was adopted with but one dissenting vote. This imbalance of power between the branches of state government kept the elite firmly in control, and disenfranchised most New Yorkers who would fight the Revolutionary War. Slavery was legal in New York until 1827.

Under this constitution, the Assembly had a provision for a maximum of 70 Members, with the following apportionment:

For the city (at the time, New York City included only what is today Manhattan) and county of New York, nine.
The city and county of Albany, ten
The county of Dutchess, seven.
The county of Westchester, six.
The county of Ulster, six.
The county of Suffolk (eastern Long Island), five.
The county of Queens (Now Queens and Nassau Counties), four.
The county of Orange (Now Orange and Rockland Counties), four.
The county of Kings (Brooklyn), two.
The county of Richmond (Staten Island), two.
Tryon County (Now Montgomery County), six.
Charlotte County (Now Washington County.), four.
Cumberland County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.), three.
Gloucester County (Partitioned January 15, 1777 for the creation of the State of Vermont.), two.

This apportionment was to stand unchanged until a period of seven years from the end of the Revolution had expired, whereupon a census was held to correct the apportionment.

On the subject of Disenfranchisement, Article VII of the new constitution had the following to say:

VII. if, during the time aforesaid, he shall have been a freeholder, possessing a freehold of the value of twenty pounds, within the said county, or have rented a tenement therein of the yearly value of forty shillings, and been rated and actually paid taxes to this State: Provided always, That every person who now is a freeman of the city of Albany, or who was made a freeman of the city of New York on or before the fourteenth day of October, in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy-five, and shall be actually and usually resident in the said cities, respectively, shall be entitled to vote for representatives in assembly within his said place of residence.

For more information on this constitution, see: New York State Constitutions

Westward expansion

The western part of New York had been settled by the six nations of the Iroquois Confederacy for at least 500 years before Europeans came. The Sullivan Expedition moved northward through the Finger Lakes and Genesee Country, burning all the Iroquois communities and destroying their crops and orchards. The Hudson and Mohawk Rivers could be navigated only as far as Central New York. While the St. Lawrence River could be navigated to Lake Ontario, the way westward to the other Great Lakes was blocked by Niagara Falls, and so the only route to western New York was over land. Governor DeWitt Clinton strongly advocated building a canal to connect the Hudson River with Lake Erie, and thus all the Great Lakes. The Welland Canal was completed in 1833, bypassing Niagara Falls to connect Lakes Ontario and Erie.

Sullivan's men returned from the campaign to Pennsylvania and New England to tell of the enormous wealth of this new territory.

Demographics

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, as of 2005, New York was the third largest state in population after California and Texas, with an estimated population of 19,254,630 factfinder.census.gov/servlet/SAFFPopulation?_event=Search&_name=&_state=04000US36&_county=&_cityTown=&_zip=&_sse=on&_lang=en&pctxt=fph, which is an increase of 27,542, or 0.1%, from the prior year and an increase of 277,809, or 1.5%, since the year 2000.

The top ancestry groups in New York are African American (15.8%), Italian (14.4%), Irish (12.9%), and German (11.1%),

New York contains the country's largest Dominican population (concentrated in Upper Manhattan) and largest Puerto Rican population (concentrated in the Bronx). Brooklyn and the Bronx are home to many African-Americans and Queens has a large population of Latin American origin, as well as the state's largest Asian-American population.

The 2000 Census revealed which ancestries were in which counties. Italian-Americans make up the largest ancestral group in Staten Island and Long Island, followed by Irish-Americans. According to the July 1, 2004 Census Bureau Estimatefactfinder.census.gov/servlet/GCTTable?_bm=y&-geo_id=04000US36&-_box_head_nbr=GCT-T1&-ds_name=PEP_2004_EST&-_lang=en&-redoLog=false&-mt_name=PEP_2004_EST_GCTT1_ST2&-format=ST-2&-_sse=on, New York City and its six closest New York State satellite counties (Suffolk, Nassau, Westchester, Rockland, Putnam and Orange) have a combined population of 12,626,200 people, or 65.67% of the state's population.

New York State has a higher number of Italian-Americans than any other U.S. state.

Religion

As of 2006, the religious affiliations of New York citizens were:

40.0% Protestant,

38.9% Roman Catholic,

7.3% Baptist,

6.1% Methodist,

5.5% Episcopal,

3.2% Presbyterian,

17.9% Non-religious

3.4% Jewish,

2.0% Muslim,

The Washington Heights neighborhood of Manhattan contains the shrine and burial place of Saint Frances Xavier Cabrini (Mother Cabrini), the patron saint of immigrants and the first American citizen to be canonized.

At Chautauqua Lake in the southwestern portion of the state is the Chautauqua Institution, co-founded by Methodist Reverend John Vincent and devoted to adult continuing education in an uplifting setting, as that ambiance was understood in the last half of the Nineteenth Century. While some aspects of this pedagogy may seem quaint today, the Institution helped assure that high intellectual achievement would be recognized as consistent with the value system of an emerging powerful Midwest, and was one of several ways that Upstate New York served between the Civil War and World War II as a transmitting intermediary between the standards of the East Coast and the interior agricultural regions of the central states.

Important cities and towns

New York City is both the largest city in the United States, and home to over two-fifths of the population of the entire state. It is the leading center of banking, finance and communication in the United States and is the location of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) on Wall Street, Manhattan. Bureau of Economic Analysis estimates that in 2004, the total gross state product was $963.5 billionwww.bea.gov/bea/newsrel/gspnewsrelease.htm, ranking 3rd behind California and Texas. New York's agricultural outputs are dairy products, cattle and other livestock, vegetables, nursery stock, and apples. Its industrial outputs are printing and publishing, scientific instruments, electric equipment, machinery, chemical products, and tourism.

Many of the world's largest corporations locate their headquarter's home offices in Manhattan or in nearby Westchester County, New York. The Fulton Fish Market has been moved from Fulton Street in Manhattan to The Bronx.

New York's mining sector is concentrated in three areas.

Agriculture

New York State is an agricultural leader, ranking within the top five states for agricultural products including dairy, apples, cherries, cabbages, potatoes, onions, maple syrup and many others. The south shore of Lake Ontario provides the right mix of soils and microclimate for many apple, cherry, plum, pear and peach orchards. The state has 30,000 acres (120 km²) of vineyards, 212 wineries, and produced 200 million bottles of wine in 2004.

New York was heavily glaciated in the ice age leaving much of the state with deep, fertile, though somewhat rocky soils. Row crops, including hay, corn, wheat, oats, barley, and soybeans, are grown. Particularly in the western part of the state, sweet corn, peas, carrots, squash, cucumbers and other vegetables are grown. The glaciers also left numerous swampy areas, which have been drained for the rich humus soils called muckland which is mostly used for onions, potatoes, celery and other vegetables. Cheese is a major product, often produced by Amish or Mennonite farm cheeseries. The honeybees are also used for pollination of fruits and vegetables. Most commercial beekeepers are migratory, taking their hives to southern states for the winter. Buffalo also has a lightrailsystem, and Rochester had a subway system, although it is mostly destroyed. Only a small part exists under the old Erie Canal Aquaduct.

New York City

New York City is home to the most complex and extensive transportation network in the United States, with more than 12,000 iconic yellow cabs, 120,000 daily bicyclists, a massive subway system, bus and railroad systems, immense airports, landmark bridges and tunnels, ferry service and even an aerial commuter tramway. About one in every three users of mass transit in the United States and two-thirds of the nation's rail riders live in New York and its suburbs.

Many suburban commuter railroad lines enter and leave New York City, including the Long Island Rail Road, MTA Metro-North, the PATH system and many of NJTransit's rail services.

Law and government

As in all fifty states, the head of the executive branch of government is a Governor. The legislative branch is called the Legislature and consists of a Senate and an Assembly. Unlike most states, the New York electoral law permits electoral fusion, and New York ballots tend to have, in consequence, a larger number of parties on them, some being permanent minor parties that seek to influence the major parties and others being ephemeral parties formed to give major-party candidates an additional line on the ballot.

New York's legislature is notoriously dysfunctional. Other officially incorporated governmental units are towns, cities, and villages.

Many of New York's public services are carried out by public benefit corporations, frequently known as authorities or development corporations. The most famous examples are probably the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which oversees New York City's subway, and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (actually a bi-state agency). New York State has its counties pay a higher percentage of welfare costs than any other state, and New York State is the only state which requires counties to pay a portion of Medicaid.

The court system in New York is often cited as assigning unintuitive names to its courts: the New York Supreme Court, which people often assume is "supreme" in the same sense as the Supreme Court of the United States, is not the highest court in the state (the New York Court of Appeals is). These courts are the starting point for all criminal cases outside cities, and handle a variety of other matters including small claims, traffic ticket cases and local zoning matters. Presidential candidate John Kerry won New York State by 18 percentage points in 2004, while Al Gore had an even bigger margin of a win in New York State in 2000. Many of the state's other urban areas, including Albany, Ithica, Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuseare also Democratic. Heavily populated suburban areas such as Westchester County and Long Island usually hold the power in determining state elections and have tended to favor Republicans at the state level and Democrats at the federal level but that trend seems to be changing since the past few elections, with Democrats picking up some more power statewide in both regions.

Because New York State consistently votes Democratic in national elections, many observers argue the state is insignificant in presidential contests.

Education

Primary, middle-level, and secondary education

The University of the State of New York (USNY), its policy-setting Board of Regents, and USNY's administrative arm, the New York State Education Department (NYSED), oversee all public primary, middle-level, and secondary education in the state. However, as is found in most other US states, individual school districts in New York have much latitude in exercising management and policy for such education within their district boundaries.

New York is one of seven states that mandates that Holocaust and genocide studies be taught at some point in elementary or secondary schools' curriculum. New York City operates the City University of New York (CUNY) in conjunction with the state.

New York's land-grant university is Cornell University, a private university.

New York is the nation?s largest importer of college students, according to statistics which show that among freshmen who leave their home states to attend college, more come to New York than any other state, including California.The New York Observer. www.observer.com/printpage.asp?iid=13093&ic=Editorials

See also Education in New York City, list of Colleges and Universities in the State of New York

Professional sports teams

Club	Sport	League
Buffalo Bills	Football	National Football League
New York Jets	Football	National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
New York Giants	Football	National Football League;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
New York Knicks	Basketball	National Basketball Association
New Jersey Nets	Basketball	National Basketball Association;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey - planning move to the Brooklyn Nets Arena at Atlantic Yards in Brooklyn)
New York Liberty	Basketball	Women's National Basketball Association
Rochester Raging Rhinos	Soccer	USL First Division
Red Bull New York	Soccer	Major League Soccer;(plays in East Rutherford, New Jersey)
Buffalo Sabres	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
New York Islanders	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
New York Rangers	Ice Hockey	National Hockey League
Adirondack Frostbite	Ice Hockey	United Hockey League
Albany River Rats	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Binghamton Senators	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Elmira Jackals	Ice Hockey	United Hockey League
Rochester Americans	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
Syracuse Crunch	Ice Hockey	American Hockey League
New York Mets	Baseball	Major League Baseball

New York Yankees	Baseball	Major League Baseball
Brooklyn Cyclones	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Staten Island Yankees	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Binghamton Mets	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Buffalo Bisons	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Jamestown Jammers	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Batavia Muckdogs	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Rochester Red Wings	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Auburn Doubledays	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Syracuse SkyChiefs	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Oneonta Tigers	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Tri-City Valley Cats	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Hudson Valley Renegades	Baseball	Minor League Baseball
Long Island Ducks	Baseball	Atlantic League of Professional Baseball
New York Dragons	Arena football	Arena Football League
Long Island Lizards	Lacrosse	Major League Lacrosse
Rochester Rattlers	Lacrosse	Major League Lacrosse
Buffalo Bandits	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
Rochester Knighthawks	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
New York Titans	Lacrosse	National Lacrosse League
Brooklyn Wonders	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Buffalo Silverbacks	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Rochester Razorsharks	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Strong Island Sound	Basketball	American Basketball Association
Albany Patroons	Basketball	Continental Basketball Association

Navy vessel namesakes

There have been at least five United States Navy ships named USS New York in honor of the state. USS New York (LPD-21) was laid down on September 10 2004 and will be the sixth Navy ship to be named for the state.

References

Additional topics

Company HistoryElectricity & Utilities

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