Heather C. Briccetti, Esq.
President and CEO of The Business Council of New York State
ALBANY, N.Y. — We congratulate Governor Cuomo, Senate Leaders Skelos and Klein and Assembly Speaker Silver, as well as Minority Leaders Stewart-Cousins and Kolb, on a successful session that will promote economic growth and new job creation in New York State.
Both houses of the New York State legislature ended session by taking action on several Business Council priorities including:
- legislation that repeals the unnecessary and administratively burdensome annual notice requirement of the “Wage Theft Prevention Act,” showing a commitment to common-sense reductions in regulatory compliance burdens imposed on private sector employers.
- a fifteen-month extension of the state's brownfield cleanup and redevelopment program, which will give developers confidence in the availability of state incentives as the administration and legislature continue to work on a long-term reform and extension bill.
- a two year extension of contract procurement and procurement lobbying regulation, and a commitment to work on broader reforms to the state's contract procurement laws that will promote increased competition on state and municipal contracts, especially by small business and M/WBE contractors.
Most importantly, the session ended without imposition of significant costly new compliance burdens on the private sector.
Earlier this year, the adoption of a fourth consecutive sustainable growth budget illustrated the state's new sense of fiscal discipline, an important achievement, recently recognized by an upgrading of the state's credit rating to its highest level in 50 years.
The budget also included the most significant broad-based business tax reforms adopted in New York in the past twenty years. Structural tax reform that reduces compliance costs, and lower tax burdens on key sectors of the state's economy, will improve our economic climate and foster growth upstate and downstate alike. The package will provide employers with approximately $560 million in tax relief that can be reinvested in the economy.
No doubt, we have more work to do to promote new jobs, new investments, and strong communities across New York. Nevertheless, the 2014 session continued to keep New York's economy on a new, positive path forward.