The New York State Board
on Electric Generation Siting and the Environment has unanimously approved,
with conditions, a new 800 megawatt power plant in Scriba, Oswego County.
The Jan. 17 vote followed
a nine-month environmental and technical review of the project under Article
X of the Public Service Law
Assemblyman Paul Tokasz (D-Cheektowaga),
the new Assembly Majority Leader, told The Council's Government Affairs
Council (GAC) that help for the upstate economy will be one of his top priorities
in his new role.
In one of his first speeches
as Majority Leader, Tokasz addressed the GAC Jan
Governor Pataki proposed
a 2001-02 budget that would cut taxes on manufacturers and other employers,
invest hundreds of millions of dollars in high-technology partnerships between
universities and businesses, and provide significant new incentives for
redevelopment of brownfields while restraining overall spending growth
Raymond T. Schuler, founding
president of The Business Council, was remembered as a "militant visionary"
at a memorial service Jan. 8 at St. Mary's Church in Albany.
Schuler died Nov. 24 in Fort
Myers, Florida, after an eight-year battle with cancer. He was 71 years
old
ALBANYReforming
New York State's corporate tax to eliminate taxation of companies' jobs and
property in the state could lead to an additional 133,000 jobs while increasing
state revenues, a new study by two leading economists concludes.
The study was
conducted for The Public Policy Institute, the research affiliate of The Business
Council of New York State, by Professor Austan Goolsbee of the University
of Chicago's Graduate School of Business and Professor Edward L
The Senate
majority has proposed an energy plan that it says would cut taxes by nearly
half a billion dollars, lowering energy costs and reducing homeowners' and
businesses' heat bills by encouraging conservation.
But Senate
Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, at the press conference at which the proposal
was announced, forcefully rejected the idea of new legislative actions to
reregulate New York's energy markets
Saying
New York State will once again "turn crisis into comeback,"
Governor Pataki called today for going forward with scheduled
tax cuts, restraining state spending, and creating new economic
development efforts to stimulate business and job growth statewide
In our view,
the 2001 State of the State message is a resounding success. The Governor
has been both clear and forceful in reminding all New Yorkers that there is
more that New York can, should, and will do to foster prosperity. And he has
advanced solid ideas for sustaining the economic momentum he and his colleagues
in the Legislature have done so much to create
The family of Raymond T.
Schuler has announced that a public memorial service for Mr. Schuler will
be held at 3 p.m. next Monday, January 8, at historic St. Mary's Church
on Capitol Hill in Albany, New York.
Bishop Howard Hubbard will
be the principal celebrant at the Memorial Mass
Governor
George E. Pataki opened the 2001 legislative session today with a call
for new tax relief for manufacturers and other businesses, new incentives
for investments in upstate communities, and new initiatives to bolster
the state's high technology capabilities.
In his
annual State of the State message, the Governor said that because of
the tax cuts and other reforms of the last six years, "for the
first time in 20 years, New York's rate of job growth has outpaced the
national average for two years in a row