Bulletin #9: June 1, 1999
We're still paying for big-spending budgets of years ago
New York can't afford another big spending increase. The need to cut our high taxes further and to pay for those tax cuts already enacted is one reason, as previous editions of Spending Watch have pointed out
By John L. Greenthal
Government regulatory agencies usually respond to violations of environmental
requirements through the civil enforcement process.
But those agencies and their prosecutorial partners (including the state
Attorney General and local district attorneys) may also develop cases for
criminal prosecution when the violation is committed intentionally, knowingly,
recklessly, or with criminal negligence
Bulletin #8: May 26, 1999
More state aid won't cut local taxes. Mandate relief will.
New York's biggest single competitive problem is local taxes. All told, the population-adjusted difference between local taxes here, and those in other states, adds up to an extra burden of $25 billion
ALBANY—Without a new approach to worker training, New York risks
losing the full benefits of its recent efforts to improve its business
climate, Ed Reinfurt, vice president of The Business Council, testified
at an Assembly hearing today.
(Click here to view
the testimony)
"In the last five years, New York has taken important steps to put its economy on the
right track," Reinfurt told the Legislative Commission on Skills Development and Career
Education
Bulletin #7: May 24, 1999
To stimulate Upstate, cut taxes. To do that, cut spending.
Upstate's economy was devastated by high taxes in the late 1980s and early 1990s, as shown by an authoritative new report from Governor Pataki's Chief Economist, Dr. Stephen Kagann. Thanks to major tax cuts enacted over the past five years, things are improving
Governor Pataki has proposed two workers' compensation reforms that
are long-time Business Council
priorities: a cap on permanent partial disability payments and use
of objective medical guidelines to determine the degree of impairment
in such cases.
The Governor estimated that the reforms would reduce rates paid by employers
an average 24
The Council's Spending Watch campaign,
urging spending restraint in the new state budget, has begun advertising
on the World Wide Web.
The Council has entered into an agreement with Chichester's Empire Page,
widely read by the political community in Albany and statewide, to include
a link to the Spending Watch section of The Business Council's
own website, www
Bulletin #6: May 17, 1999
Back to the future? Not
This seems familiar--haven't we been here before? Sure enough. Only 11 years ago, New York lawmakers were debating what to do with a sizeable surplus. Predictably, pro-spending advocates swarmed in Albany, eventually persuading legislators to enact huge increases in spending
Leaders of business and government from across New York attended The
Council's Annual Dinner and The Public Policy Institute's Issues Forum at the Empire State Plaza in Albany.
The Issues Forum focused on tort reform and featured keynote addresses
by state Senator Dale Volker and Assemblyman Joseph Morelle, sponsors
of the Volker-Morelle Civil Justice Act
Governor Pataki has nominated Arthur J. Roth as Commissioner of the
Department of Taxation and Finance. The nomination is subject to Senate
confirmation. He would succeed Michael Urbach.
Roth has served as deputy commissioner for operations since March 1996.
He was founder and managing director of Roth Nobis & Company, P