News

26
Jan
2004
New York City will need to increase its electricity capacity by 25 percent over the next four years, according to a new report by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s energy policy task force. The city must have a dependable source of electricity to maintain its position as the financial, corporate and communications capital of the world, the report said
24
Jan
2004
Governor George Pataki's 2004-05 budget grows spending at about twice the rate of inflation, according to an analysis by the Manhattan Institute. "And in all probability, the Legislature will add even more to this amount before the budget is finally adopted," the report said
23
Jan
2004
Business Council members can receive a substantial discount on The Council's annual report on employers' compensation practices if they agree to participate in the survey used to gather the information. Compdata Surveys of Kansas City, which conducts and compiles the survey for The Business Council, will send questionnaires to employers across New York State in late March
22
Jan
2004
Medical payments account for the largest share of employee benefit costs, according to a new study by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. The study, which the chamber has conducted for more than fifty years, also showed that employee benefit costs made up 42
20
Jan
2004
Governor Pataki introduced a proposed 2004-05 budget that would phase in a corporate tax reduction for manufacturers whose operations are concentrated in New York, while raising the minimum tax for some corporations and eliminating some Medicaid services to reduce costs
16
Jan
2004
If it adopts extensive new technical requirements affecting how wind power is moved onto the state's electricity transmission grid, New York State could safely add about 3,300 megawatts of new wind-powered electric generating capacity, a preliminary report on the potential of wind generation in New York said
15
Jan
2004
The Governor's Medicaid task force has urged reforms it says would cut spending on Medicaid in New York by $4.2 billion over the next five years. The task force singled out long-term care as a key cost driver and said the state should release counties from paying for expensive long-term treatment
13
Jan
2004
To build support for its comprehensive workers’ compensation reform package, The Business Council is offering to brief its members as well as local and regional associations of businesses and manufacturers on the proposal. This must be the year that comprehensive workers’ compensation reform is passed, said Kerry Kirwan, The Business Council’s legislative analyst specializing in workers’ compensation
13
Jan
2004
Business that want to foster relations with overseas contemporaries may do so through an internship program, sponsored by the U.S. Department of Commerce, that allows U.S. companies to host industry professionals from Eurasia. The Special American Business Internship Training (SABIT) awards competitive grants to private-sector U
13
Jan
2004
Two powerful health-care spending groups have proposed a new tax on businesses of up to $3,000 per employee and $1 to $2 billion in new taxpayer-funded public debt to send new taxpayer dollars to hospitals and increase state spending on Medicaid and other government health insurance programs