Joseph Dalton Jr., president of the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce, sent in some good news recently:

Every time you open a newspaper or turn on a radio or television, it’s bad economic news. The bad news gets repeated over coffee, on the street, and in the office so often it creates a real “fear” of the future.
What we don’t hear is that in Saratoga County, 93.7 percent of our adult residents are employed in an economy that does not rely on a single employment sector.
We don’t hear that the local banks do almost no foreclosures due to bad mortgage loans. We don’t hear that 2,000 construction workers will soon be on the Luther Forest site building a $4.2 billion building to employ over 1,200. (MN's note: riffle through The Saratogian archives and you will find plenty of coverage on Global Foundries and how many jobs the micro chip plant is expected to create. Here's the latest.)
We don’t hear that we have the lowest per capita county taxes in the state.
We don’t hear that we continue to be the fastest growing county in upstate.
We don’t hear of all the national awards and accolades the county has received for quality of life.
And there are dozens of other positive points we don’t hear.
The “fear” has caused many people to freeze, to pay bills late, to hold off on purchases, and to adapt a “bunker attitude.” And once that happens the “fear” grows and grows.
Most of us can do a little to combat that down feeling — buy a hot fudge sundae, treat your daughter to a new dress, take a grandchild to SPAC’s lawn performance, pay that bill when it arrives, buy some plants, or have the oil changed in your car.
Sure, they are little things, but with over 200,000 of us in the county the economy will improve even just a little, but more importantly some of that fear and negativity will go away.