Gov. Kathy Hochul announced Thursday that Albany, Rochester and Utica are the intended targets for up to $300,000 in planning money and up to $40 million to establish workforce training centers, intended to funnel New Yorkers into advanced manufacturing jobs.

At the event, she also further expanded on plans for an overhaul of the New York State Museum, and indicated that she has no plans to take the museum out of the state Education Department after years of speculation fueled by the department's struggles to keep the facility up to date. 

“Local businesses in this field are projecting there will be 4,500 new job openings in the next five years, and we have 9,000 people retiring from them, so we have such demand to get people in the doors and train them,” she said of the workforce development centers. 

Part of the state’s “ON-RAMP” Program, the locations join Syracuse, which had already been selected as the flagship site. Micron’s semiconductor plant just north of the city is the centerpiece of what the state is touting as its “semiconductor highway.”

All four sites are along that state Thruway corridor, with the Utica site located at Mohawk Valley Community College in Utica and the Rochester facility planned for Monroe Community College. 

“The ripple effect is not just for Central New York, it is all over the state,” she said.

The Albany facility will be located at the now-closed College of Saint Rose. Albany County Executive Dan McCoy said initiatives like these are a lifeline for communities that have seen smaller private schools shut down.

“As colleges are going to fold, unfortunately, the county governments or the city or town that it is in has to figure that out and quickly, so the governor said ‘hey, this ON-RAMP Program,’” he said.

Hochul also further detailed her plan for a $150 million overhaul of the New York State Museum at the Empire State Plaza in Albany, stressing that she wants the museum to highlight the various cultural movements that have taken place in New York from the Niagara Movement to Stonewall.

And she wants it done in the style of the world famous museums of Manhattan.

“I’m talking about a blue ribbon commission of experts in this field,” she said. “We have a lot of talent in New York City, for example, so let’s use their skills and what they have done with other major projects.”

For decades, questions have persisted over the museum’s place within the state’s Education Department — and leadership struggles and stagnant exhibits have fueled rumors that the governor was looking to take control of the facility.

She says for now, a long-term museum coup is not in her plans.

“We’ll be involved in this process, but I’m happy to have them run it at the end. I don’t want to run a museum, I just want to inject our resources and bring our vision,” he said.

New York State Education Department spokesperson J.P. O’Hare laid bare the apparent lack of communication that persists between the executive and the department.

“It’s impossible to respond to the limited details of the governor’s latest plan for the State Museum that have been shared with members of the press. We assume any plan will include sustainable support for museum operations, and we look forward to reviewing formal details when they are made available to us,” he said.