Bulletin #4: May 3, 1999
Education cuts? What education cuts?
One of the pro-spending lobbyists' biggest complaints about Governor Pataki's proposed budget is that it "slashes" education spending. The fact is, of course, that our education spending is already among the very highest in the country, and would jump still further under the Executive Budget
The Business Council has reprinted Governor Pataki's April 15 testimony
before Congress in a brochure for economic development and site-selection
professionals.
Governor Pataki told the House Committee on Government Reform about
New York's economic decline in recent decades, how high taxes drove that
decline, and the state's recent efforts to reverse the decline
Bulletin #3: April 29, 1999
Health care being 'slashed'? We've heard it all before
The health-care lobbyists and unions are working overtime to convince New Yorkers and their elected officials that our health-care system will be at death's door, if state financing is reduced. The head of the Greater New York Hospital Association said recently that, as a result of funding reforms proposed by both Governor Pataki and President Clinton, "You're going to see massive service cutbacks" in hospitals
The Assembly has scheduled public hearings in May in Buffalo, Rochester,
Syracuse and Albany to examine proposals to improve the upstate economy.
The Council plans to testify.
Citing tax cuts, reduced workers' compensation rates, and reduced-rate
power available for job creation and retention under the Power for Jobs
program, the Assembly's hearing announcement said the state's economy
has improved
The number of new state regulations has been cut in half since Governor
Pataki created the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform, a new report
from GORR says.
"We'll keep slashing away at the tangle of red tape so often involved
in government bureaucracy," David S. Bradley, GORR's acting director,
said
A new Assembly bill that would require health-care insurers to provide
coverage of infertility treatments has re-energized debate about health-care
mandates and their effects on health-care costs.
The bill, sponsored by Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, would mandate
that any health insurance that covers hospital stays, surgical care,
and medical care must also cover costs of diagnosis and treatments for
infertility, including drug therapy, artificial insemination and in-vitro
fertilization
A workers' compensation reform that has been a top
Council priority for several years is part of new legislation-the
second bill introduced this session that would make the same reform.
The "Small Business Support Act of 1999," developed and sponsored by
Senator Nicholas Spano (R-Westchester), addresses longtime priorities
of The Council's Workers' Compensation Committee and Small Business Council
Bulletin #2: April 26, 1999
Just The Facts: New York State is a leader in spending
This year's debate over the state budget boils down to one key question: How much should spending go up in the coming year?
The health-care lobbyists, the education establishment and others are hoping the answer is several multiples of the inflation rate
Governor Pataki has proposed abolishing current regulations on the commercial
insurance industry, giving new momentum to the call for insurance deregulation.
The Governor's plan, which was announced April 15, would eliminate the
requirement that the state Insurance Department approve many commercial
policies
Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno has proposed a debt-reform plan
that would cut the state's projected debt by $6 billion over five years
and reform its borrowing practices.
The Senate plan would eliminate "back-door borrowing"--that is, borrowing
not expressly approved by voters