For
the third consecutive year, California Governor Gray Davis
this month vetoed a bill that would have increased workers'
compensation benefits.
The
bill (SB 71) failed to include cost-saving systemic reforms
and wouldhave put $4
Health-care
costs increased 7.2 percent in 2000, the largest increase
in a decade, and increases in hospital spending accounted
for the largest share of that jump, a new study by the Center
for Studying Health System Change has concluded
A
prominent national taxpayers' group is showcasing analysis
from The Public Policy Institute to show how differing state
and local tax burdens affect the competitiveness of individual
states.
Robert
B
Governor
Pataki and legislative leaders have approved $500 million
in new initiatives, including new investments in high-tech
R&D and nine new economic development zones.
To
create new state revenues, lawmakers also expanded legal gambling
by authorizing creation of six casinos, three each in the
Catskills and the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region
The percentage
of employers who think their health-care costs are "out of
control" is up from 48 percent in 2000 to 59 percent this
year, a new Harris Interactive survey shows.
As a result,
human resources directors of most employers of all sizes plan
changes in health plans over the next two years that will
shift greater costs to their employees
The Business
Council's workers' compensation specialist is visiting members
across the state to learn more about their experiences with
the workers' comp system and to seek their ideas for legislative,
regulatory, and administrative reforms to that system
New York's
economic slowdown this year will trigger an increase in state
unemployment insurance (UI) taxes in 2002, Rich Schwarz, The
Council's tax specialist, has projected.
As of Sept.
7, New York State employers had paid $1
New York's
fourth-grade students performed better on standardized math
tests than last year's fourth-graders, but middle-school students'
results on English and math tests remained static or declined
slightly, results from the 2001 tests showed
ALBANYNew
York urgently needs to site a proposed electricity generating facility in
Albany County - and at least a dozen other new power plants - to avoid the
risk of serious damage to the state's economic health, a new white paper by
The Public Policy Institute of New York State argues
The head of
New York's Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) praised New York businesses
for their flexibility and aggressiveness on workers' comp claims stemming
from the Sept. 11 terrorism.
Robert Snashall,
chairman of the Workers' Compensation Board, spoke at the Oct. 10 meeting
of The Council's Workers' Compensation Committee in Albany