I'm not familiar with the political goings on in NY state but apparently the following is in part what kicked off this opinion piece.
http://www.techvalley.org/Pages/Live...itiatives.html
Obviously there is support for a variety of initiatives including robotics in techvalley.
PS - the need to update the web page, it says the championship is at the Georgia Dome.
PS2 - hopefully that will become accurate again one day.