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. The meeting will take place at the new William Noah Allyn International Center for Training and Development.

Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh noted that The Business Council's priorities for 2000 include all priority issues identified by Advance Upstate New York, a coalition of business interests with which The Council has been collaborating.

The Business Council's top priorities for 2000 are: education reform; workers' compensation reform; state fiscal restraint; a reduction in the gross receipts tax (GRT) on consumers; property tax reduction; and liability reform.

Priorities of Advance Upstate, an initiative announced in April by business groups in Buffalo, Rochester, and Syracuse, include the gross receipts tax, mandates that drive up property taxes, and workers' comp reform.

Business Council directors met with the Advance Upstate Group in June to learn about its priorities. The November meeting will focus on a legislative strategy for next year.