NORWICH – For once, the focus in Albany is on upstate, two City of Norwich officials said last week.

While it might not look like it publicly, there’s also a spirit of cooperation amongst the leadership in Albany to work on upstate issues, said City Mayor Joseph Maiurano and Finance Director William Roberts, after attending the New York Conference of Mayors (NYCOM) annual meeting last week in Albany.

“There was more of an eye, a focus on upstate,” said Roberts, referring to the conference. “There used to be in Albany, it appeared, an attitude of ‘out of sight, out of mind.’ It was a total shift from that.”

At the meeting, NYCOM, made up of 584 member governments and 7,000 elected officials, announced its legislative agenda for 2008-09. Maiurano said the city generally follows the guidelines set forth in that policy guidebook.

On Gov. Eliot Spitzer’s Executive Budget, under review by the Legislature and due for vote before April 1, the city supports his call for a $1 billion upstate revitalization fund, scheduled increase in state aid for cities and the creation of new revenue streams through Internet sales.

One negative in Spitzer’s plan: a 3 percent decrease in state highway funding for municipalities, Maiurano said.