Meghan Taylor Awarded 2024 Woman of Achievement in Economic Development Award
By John Jordan
MIDDLETOWN—As we approach the 2024 Presidential election and expected further rate cuts, Keynote Speaker Michael Normyle, senior director and U.S. economist for Nasdaq, assured the crowd of approximately 425 attendees at the Orange County Partnership Investor Breakfast on Oct. 1 that the U.S. economy is on solid ground and will avert a recession.
Normyle told the gathering at the Barn at Villa Venezia in Middletown, “The hope is here that we have seen the Fed pivot to this rate cut cycle so they are reducing the restriction on the economy. The labor market is in an okay spot, but restrictions do need to go away. Overall, the economy is holding up pretty well. So, we are in a position where we should be able to get that soft landing and hopefully, this expansion will continue for the next four years.”
Normyle noted that the Fed will be reducing rates for the next two years to eventually lift its restrictive lending policies. He also provided some analysis on the economic plans by Democratic nominee and Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican nominee Donald Trump. In the end, he said that in the past Presidential elections have not had much of an impact on the overall economy unless the outcome was a dramatic victory for one party over another.
One issue that has to be rectified is the spread between the 3% spending growth versus the 1% income growth. Normyle advised that the current differential between spending and income is not sustainable.
The top billing for the program was the award of the 2024 Woman of Achievement in Economic Development Award to Meghan Taylor, senior vice president of government affairs and public relations at Genting Americas Inc. Taylor started her impressive career in economic development with the Orange County Partnership as its Director, Business Attraction in 2011 and most recently, for more than four years, the honoree has helped grow Genting’s Resorts World Catskills casino in Monticello that employs 1,200 workers. She also played a critical role in the development of the nearly $50-million Resorts World Hudson Valley electronic gaming facility located in 90,000 square feet of space at the Newburgh Mall that first opened its doors in December 2020.
Taylor has worked on major development projects such as LEGOLAND New York, President Container, Newburgh Brewing Co., Regeneron Pharmaceuticals and countless others in her roles at the county level in Orange and Putnam counties and as a regional director for the Mid-Hudson Region for Empire State Development that have fostered billions of dollars in investment and tens of thousands of jobs in the Hudson Valley. Under Taylor’s leadership as the Vice President and Regional Director for the Mid-Hudson, the Mid-Hudson Regional Economic Development Council secured more than $258 million in state funding to fund 327 projects.
Orange County Partnership President and CEO Maureen Halahan recalled hiring Taylor after her graduation from Mount Saint Mary College in Newburgh and noted, “I followed my gut. I hired her and let her run.”
Taylor, who thanked Halahan and other colleagues at the Orange County Partnership for their guidance in launching her career, said, “I am truly honored and humbled to accept the Women of Achievement award. To stand here today and be recognized by the organization that truly gave me the foundation for my career is just an absolute privilege.”
Taylor is the third winner of the Orange County Partnership’s Woman of Achievement Award for Economic Development. Prior award winners were Erin Boyce, the owner and president of Boyce Excavating of Slate Hill in 2022 and Kelly Naughton, partner at the Goshen law firm Naughton & Torre, LLP in 2023.
Other highlights of the program included a speech by Orange County Executive Steve Neuhaus, who revealed his plan to consolidate some county operations, and acquire some properties for county operations in or near Goshen and Partnership’s Conor Eckert, who provided an update on a host of the organization’s activities, including getting the word out on new wetlands regulations, the 17-Forward-86 initiative and $320,000 in funding it has secured with the Town of Newburgh to perform site analysis on possible adaptive reuse opportunities in the county, including at the Danskammer energy facility in Newburgh.
The sponsors of the event were: A Single Bite, Abilities First Inc., Access: Supports for Living, Albany Strategic Advisors, LLC, Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, Blustein, Shapiro, Frank & Barone, LLP, Community Foundation of Orange and Sullivan, Council of Industry, Crown Castle, Ellenville Regional Hospital, Holt Construction, Hudson Gateway Association of REALTORS, Hudson Valley Honor Flight, Hudson Valley Pattern for Progress, MDS HVAC-R, Inc., Mid-Hudson Discovery Museum, Montefiore St. Luke's Cornwall, Monticello Rotary Club/Sullivan County Veteran's Coalition, Mount Saint Mary College, Naughton & Torre, LLP, Newburgh Brewing Company, Newburgh Mall Ventures LLC, Orange & Rockland Utilities, E-Mobility, Orange County Chamber of Commerce, Orange County Ironworks, LLC, PAMAL Radio, Perreca Electric Co., Inc., PKF O'Connor Davies, Provident Bank (Lakeland Bank), RECAP Inc., Sullivan Catskills Visitors Assoc., Town of Wallkill Boys & Girls Club, Ulster Savings Bank and Yanina May Photography.
