WENY reports that Eric Massa is among the members of the New York delegation who's optimistic that some scaled-down version of a new Presidential helicopter will be built. The proposed replacement for the aging fleet has turned into a huge boondoggle, with the estimated cost topping out at $400 million per helicopter.
To get an idea of how crazy that price is, the helicopter on which Marine One is based cost $27 million each when first introduced in 2000.
Update: The D&C pegs the number of jobs riding on this program as 800, centered in the town of Owego, which is roughly halfway between Elmira and Binghamton.