Leaders of Unshackle Upstate continued their protest today of Gov. David Paterson’s plans to change the co-chairmanship structure of Empire State Development Corp. and referred regularly to his team of “downstate advisors.”

The coalition—which represents more than 45,000 businesses from Buffalo, Rochester, Syracuse, Binghamton and Utica—said that upstate would be better served with downstate and upstate chairs rather than Paterson’s plans to make one person head of the entire agency.

Paterson has argued that one person can better oversee the agency for the entire state, but business leaders disagree. We ran a story on the issue today.

“The current structure provides the Upstate region with a government official with the power to hire and fire staff, approve projects and allocate resources – the powers necessary to effectively move the Upstate economy forward,” said Sandy Parker, right, president and CEO of the Rochester Business Alliance, a founding partner in Unshackle Upstate.

“To dilute those powers in any way would be a huge step backwards in terms of Gov. Paterson’s commitment to Upstate business owners struggling to stay afloat and the people they employ. How can we have a revitalized economy if Empire State Development packs up its bags and heads home to mid-town Manhattan again?”

The group said in a news release today that under the current structure, Upstate Empire Development has been able to move projects along with greater ease and more speed.

“It’s not about titles, it’s about having the authority to make the deals and decisions necessary to move the economic needle in our fragile region,” said Andrew J. Rudnick, president and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, and an Unshackle Upstate leader.

They said that last month Paterson visited upstate cities to pledge his support, but now they fear Paterson may be pulling back from his promises after taking over for Gov. Eliot Spitzer.

“For the first time in our history, we had a governor (Spitzer) who gave a State of Upstate Address,” said Darlene Kerr, president of the Greater Syracuse Chamber of Commerce and an Unshackle Upstate leader. “There was so much optimism among upstate business leaders that real change was going to take place. There appears to be a real disconnect on the part of the current administration and its advisors.”

Unshackle Upstate leaders are reaching out to the state senators and assembly members who represent the region asking them to push Paterson to reconsider.

Unshackle Upstate also sent out email messages to the coalition’s 72 partner organizations, encouraging their members to voice their concern directly to the governor and his team o”f downstate advisors.”