Two members of The Business Council's Environment Committee have received
its "Building A Better New York" award.
The 1999 recipients of this award are Hal Pierce, an environmental safety
consultant, and Thomas Maher, vice president of Dvirka & Bartilucci,
consulting engineers
The new "Jobs 2000" program that won final approval this week "will
make New York's recovery bigger, stronger, and faster as the state
enters the new millennium," Business Council President Daniel B.
Walsh said.
Governor Pataki signed the bill into law Nov. 10 at Hudson Valley
Community College in Troy
Local governments and school districts across New York State are
enjoying huge savings on employee pension costs, thanks to the returns
on the state pension fund's stock and other investments, Comptroller
H. Carl McCall reported.
State taxpayers have saved $583 million, and local taxpayers $609
million, on cumulative pension contributions by government employers
over the past three years, the Comptroller said
New York must resist pressure to relax its tough new academic standards,
the chairman of The Business Council's Education Committee told lawmakers
in a legislative hearing October 28.
"To keep giving kids a diploma based on old standards that do not reflect
what it takes to be a success in this world today is not helping them," Carlos
Carballada, an executive at M&T Bank and former chancellor of the
state Board of Regents told a legislative hearing on new high-school
standards
New York's state taxes are still higher than those in most other states,
but are coming closer to the national average, new data from the U.S.
Census Bureau show.
As of fiscal 1998, New York collected $1,989 in taxes for every state
resident, the Census Bureau said. That figure was 12
The Charter Schools Institute of the State University of New York has
received 90 applications from community leaders statewide seeking approval
to open new charter schools in 40 different communities next year.
The flood of applications suggests growing public support for the new
alternative public schools
The Business Council is evaluating the potential costs and environmental
benefits of pending new regulations affecting emissions from power generating
plants, according to Ken Pokalsky, director of environmental and regulatory
programs for The Council.
On October 14, Governor Pataki directed the Department of Environmental
Conservation to adopt new regulations requiring utilities and other electricity
generators to cut sulfur dioxide emissions
Peter Bijur, chairman and CEO of Texaco Inc. and chairman of The Business
Council, has called a special meeting of upstate members of The Business
Council board of directors and other business leaders November 29 in
Skaneateles Falls.
The meeting will focus on how The Business Council and other business
groups can help foster economic recovery upstate
New York's state and local government spending is far above the level
justified by actual need for schools, welfare, health facilities, highways
and other services, a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston
shows.
The study estimates the "fiscal need" in each state and compares it
to a national average need
Robert J. Bellafiore, a senior aide to Governor Pataki and former director
of communications for The Business Council, has been named executive
director of the State University of New York Charter Schools Institute.
Bellafiore, who was instrumental in helping enact and implement the
state's charter school law, will serve as the Institute's chief operating
officer, overseeing day-to-day operations of the Institute