With the stimulus money why not devote some of it to rebuilding the Taconic Parkway.  Bring it up to DOT standards.  Widen it, straighten it and remove all dangerous intersections and conditions.  Keep it a commercial vehicle free highway if possible but bring it up to highway code.

Invest in the future, invest a few billion of the stimulus dollars to build a oil refinery someplace in New York State.  Within the state the are large areas of land, the former Stewart, Grifith and Plattsburg Air Force Bases come to mind most immediately but I am sure that the Buffalo area could come upwitha alocation also..  The former military bases have access to the river and canal system to barge in the materials to be refined an the products produced.  The market that could be served would be the Middle Atlantic and New England states as well as some of the Great lake states.

This would stimulate the economy by bringing in hundreds of high paying construction jobs to build the state of the arts facility and would employ many on an on going basis while throwing off very signicifient tax revenues to the state.