Government Affairs Council
Update
March 16, 2007
Reminder
- GAC Meeting Tuesday March
20th - Dennis Whalen guest
speaker
The next meeting of the Government Affairs Council will be held on Tuesday, March 20th at 10:00 a.m. in the main conference room of The Business Council, 152 Washington Ave, Albany, New York. Registration is not necessary. This is an open meeting for all Business Council members. You do not need to be on the GAC to attend.
Dennis Whalen, deputy secretary to the Governor for health and human services, will be our guest speaker. Mr. Whalen will discuss the health portions of the state budget. His appearance at the meeting will be subject to the status of budget negotiations. With any of our speakers, it is possible that he may be unable to appear.
The rest of the agenda for the meeting will include:
- Update on the Tax Proposals contained in Executive Budget/Legislative Budget Bills
- Review of Workers Compensation Package and Next Steps on Advisory Committee to be appointed
- Report on Priorities of Energy Committee
Governor
Directs Agency Heads On Workers'
Comp Next Steps
Governor Spitzer, in a letter to three Agency heads, has specified a number of projects which represent the next phase of workers' compensation reform. The letter dated March 13, 2007 directs the Superintendent of Insurance to lead the effort, and directs the Chair of the Workers' Compensation Board and the Commissioner of Labor to provide help and assistance. The projects include:
- Designing a data collection system
- Designing a streamlined docket
- Designing new medical, treatment and administrative law judge guidelines
- Reviewing premium rates with carriers
The details of each of these projects, along with reporting and action deadlines is in the enclosed letter. We will be discussing these projects in more detail at the March 20 meeting of the Government Affairs Council.
Health Care Quality and Cost Containment Commission legislation advances
Contact: Mark
Amodeo
Legislation to create a new Health Care Quality and Cost Containment Commission has advanced in both houses of the legislature. The bill (S.3020-A Seward / A.6159 Grannis) would create a nine member commission to analyze the impact on health insurance costs and quality of proposed legislation which would mandate that health benefits be offered in group health insurance policies. Many states have similar commissions. The bill moved to the Senate Calendar and was reported from to the Assembly Ways & Means Committee this week. The Business Council is strongly supportive.
FERC Approves License for Niagara Power Project
Yesterday the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved a new 50-year license for NYPA's Niagara Power Project. This assures continued operation of this very important generating facility, whose low-cost electricity is directly linked to 43,000 jobs in Western New York. The license includes an agreement, consistent with the Niagara Redevelopment Act of 1957, which addresses allocation of the project's power. These allocations are as follows:
| ALLOCATION |
DESCRIPTION |
MW |
Preference Power
|
New York State Municipal Electric Systems and Rural Electric Cooperatives |
752 |
Preference Power
|
Neighboring States |
188 |
Replacement Power
|
Western New York Business & Industry |
445 |
Expansion Power
|
Western New York Business & Industry |
250 |
Rural and Domestic Power
|
Residential Customers of National Grid, New York State Electric & Gas, Rochester Gas & Electric |
301 |
New license conditions also will protect and enhance fish and wildlife, water quality, recreational resources and historic properties. The FERC press release is available here:
www.ferc.gov/press-room/press-releases/2007/2007-1/03-15-07-H-1.asp
Assembly, Senate each pass a State Budget Revenue Bill
The Assembly and Senate each amended the Governor's Executive Budget revenue bill, now A.4310B and S.2110B, respectively, and passed their respective "B" versions.
The Assembly accepted each of the Governor's proposed business tax increases with the following three exceptions: (1) none of the corresponding business tax increases to New York City's tax code were included; (2) the elimination of Article 32's 20% reduction for in-State wages was not included; and (3) the fifth trigger for forced conversion of an Article 32 taxpayer's investment subsidiary from Article 9-A status to Article 32 status was not included, namely, an IRC 368(a)(1)(A), (B), (C), (D), or (E) reorganization.
The Senate included none of the Governor's proposed business tax increases and included all the business tax decreases in its previously passed S.1456.
As is the case with all Budget issues, the differences in the bills will be subject to resolution by a joint Assembly-Senate conference committee.
Updating
Your Contact Information
Staff
Contact: Karen
Derenzo
As we strive to continue to send our members valuable information, the communication door needs to be open and in working order. To keep you aprised of weekly legislative information, we ask you to please keep your contact information up to date with us. It seems that changing email addresses is becoming a very common thing these days, and trying to keep up with the many error messages I receive, due to this reason, is a challenging task for me.
I just wanted to pass along a small reminder, that if you do change your contact information (title, address, phone or fax number, email address), please let me know as soon as possible. Thank you, I appreciate your cooperation.
