New York’s final state budget increased projected spending
10 percent over last year’s budget, three times the rate of
inflation, according to a new analysis by state Comptroller Alan
G. Hevesi.
The actions taking by lawmakers at the end of the session pushed
spending to about $114
Three pieces of health legislation closely watched by The Business
Council were passed by both houses in the last days of session and
could have an enormous impact on health care in New York if passed
into law, said the Council’s director of government affairs,
Elliott Shaw
The Business Council is urging the Governor to sign into a law
a bill that would change the mechanism by which employers that obtain
workers' compensation coverage through group self-insured trusts
pay mandatory surcharges on workers' comp premiums.
Until 1999, most employers paid assessments based on indemnity
losses, said Ed Reinfurt, vice president of The Business Council
The Business Council is asking members for input on revised amendments
to state regulations governing the state's Superfund and brownfield
redevelopment programs that have been published by the state Department
of Environmental Conservation (DEC).
DEC has scheduled a series of meetings and hearings to solicit
public comments on the changes
The Business Council is urging Governor Pataki to sign into law
a new bill extending the state's Power for Jobs and Economic Development
Power programs, and is urging the many Council members that participate
in the programs to give the Governor the same encouragement
Residents in flooded areas of Montgomery County, including the
communities of St. Johnsville and Canajoharie, are in need of supplies,
officials from the Montgomery
County Chamber said today.
Flood victims need bottled water, batteries, flashlights, and non-perishable
foods, the chamber said
New York lawmakers ended the 2006 legislative session without enacting
the most onerous of the so-called Wal-Mart bills that would have
dramatically inflated employers' costs and eliminated tens of thousands
of jobs in New York.
The legislative session was also marked by favorable action on
several other issues that are Council priorities, including a key
change in the way workers' comp assessments are calculated for self-insured
trusts
More than 50 leaders in education and
business from both the public and private sectors gathered at the
Business Council’s headquarters in Albany on June 21 to discuss
ways to help New York’s students be better prepared for entering
the global workforce
Most cities in New York State have lost population in the last five years, with especially large declines in major Upstate cities, the U.S. Census Bureau reported.
Buffalo, Rochester and Syracuse lost population, around 4 percent in each city, during the year ending July 1, 2005. All three cities have lost population each year since the last nationwide census in 2000, according to the bureau
Leading members of the state Senate and Assembly have announced
the introduction of new workers’ compensation legislation
which includes cost-saving reforms and benefit increases.
The legislation would also reform the state’s notorious Scaffold
Law by allowing evidence of worker negligence and employer safety
in determining liability