A key member of the Assembly leadership has endorsed The
Business Council's "Upstate Agenda for Growth"-and has said
the state must do even more to ensure that the upstate economy
reaches its potential.
Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, an Erie County Democrat who
chairs the Assembly Committee on Economic Development, Job
Creation, Commerce and Industry, said upstate needs "aggressive
action to energize our economy
Jesse J. Greene, Jr., vice president of finance for Eastman
Kodak Company, has been elected to The Business Council's
Board of Directors.
Greene was elected by the Board during its meeting December
15 in New York City. He will fill a vacancy in a term ending
in 2001
The Business Council has issued a statement underlining
its support for the learning standards and graduation requirements
that have been adopted by the state's Board of Regents.
The standards, which were developed with the support of
The Business Council initially, are being phased in beginning
with the current school year
New York State must move aggressively to adopt a health-care
quality-measurement program that includes regular public
report cards on hospitals and other health-care institutions,
according to The Business Council's specialist in health-care
issues
Issue Areas:
Construction
Education
Energy
Environment
Health
Insurance
Labor & Human Resources
Manufacturing
Small Business
Taxation
Unemployment Compensation
Workers' Compensation
To view the text of any bill mentioned below, click here and enter the bill number
What's the bottom line?
Because of a one-month crash project organized by The Business Council, some 2,506 New York employers pre-paid a total of $171,692,326.14 of their 1998 unemployment insurance taxes before the end of calendar 1997.
This automatically triggered a $420 million reduction in UI tax rates
Our wrap-up includes final action on major issues of concern to the business community. Please call or e-mail the designated Business Council staff person for further details on any of these issues or to receive copies of any legislation.
Issue Areas:
Business Law/General Counsel
Construction
Consumer Affairs
Contract Procurement
Economic Development
Education
Energy
Environment
Financial Services
Health
Insurance
Labor & Human Resources
Manufacturing
Occupational Safety & Health
Small Business
State Administrative Procedures Act
Taxation
Transportation
Unemployment Compensation
Workers' Compensation
To view the text of any bill mentioned below, click here and enter the bill number
What?
Reduce the Alternative Minimum Tax (AMT) rate applied to corporations from 3.5% to 1.75% of income. The AMT limits a company's ability to utilize all of the Investment Tax Credits (ITC) it would otherwise earn through investment in plant, equipment and job growth.
Why?
Jobs. The AMT retards investment in New York State by manufacturers
Let's Get in the Game
In early 1995, it was revealed that the state government had promised to give over $70 million of the taxpayers' hard-earned money to a giant, highly profitable corporation from out of state.
Was the reaction one of outrage? No — it was elation.
The state was Virginia, the corporation was Motorola, and the deal was the announcement that the company would build a new chip-making facility outside Richmond
The transition to deregulated hospital rate-setting in New York is working
as planned, so New York should continue moving toward a fully deregulated environment,
according to The Business Council's specialist in health-care issues.
That means that $1.38 billion in "temporary" surcharges
on health-care bills should expire on schedule at
the end of next year, Elliott Shaw, director of government affairs, said in a speech at a conference
on health care at Pace University