New York must create a "patients first" health-care system by restraining Medicaid spending on hospitals and nursing homes, eliminating wasteful funding for graduate medical education and promoting wider use of health information technology, Governor Eliot Spitzer said.
The state will also seek to expand the Child Health Plus program to cover 400,000 uninsured children, make it easier for adults to qualify for Medicaid coverage and seek to limit pharmaceutical spending, Governor Spitzer said in a preview of the health-related budget proposals he will make next week
New York ranks near the middle of the states for economic
performance, business vitality and development capacity,
a new analysis of state economies has found.
The Corporation for Enterprise Development's (CFED)
analysis, 2007 Development Report Card for the States,
measures 67 criteria to rank states' economic performance
and future economic potential
This story originally appeared in the January 2007
issue of Business Council Connect,
the Council's monthly newsletter for members.
In Buffalo, Curtis Screw Co. LLC pays more than $4,000
per employee – a total of $1 million a year –
for workers' compensation
In response to member opinions expressed in the 2006 Fall
Issues Survey, The Business Council has unveiled its 2007
priority agenda, based on members' most pressing concerns.
The agenda is presented in New York Alive; An agenda
to put New York State back on the road to economic growth
State and local taxes in New York remain the highest in the country when measured against the state's economic ability to generate revenue, a new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston finds.
The study, conducted in conjunction with the nonprofit Urban Institute,
measures "tax effort" --
each state's actual tax collections,
compared to what would have
been raised if taxable economic
activity and tax rates equaled
the average for all states
-- in fiscal 2002
Property-tax levies across New York State jumped an inflation-adjusted $7.6 billion from 2000 to 2005, The Public Policy Institute's director of research told an Albany forum that examined the rising tide of property taxes in the state.
School districts, counties and municipalities imposed those tax increases not because other revenue sources were declining, but because spending on payrolls and other costs was rising sharply, Director of Research Robert Ward said at a January 10 forum sponsored by the Center for Governmental Research
New York taxpayers are more likely to be subject to the
federal alternative minimum tax in part because of high
state and taxes, according to a new analysis by the Washington,
D.C.-based Tax Foundation.
“The AMT was originally designed as a backstop for
the federal income tax, and affected only a small number
of wealthy taxpayers,” the analysis said
Arguing that New York must do more to help businesses create
good-paying jobs, the Republican Senate Majority Tuesday
proposed tax cuts designed to save businesses more than
$1 billion a year when fully implemented. The Senate proposal
also includes increases in state aid to businesses
Declaring that "New Yorkers have resoundingly rejected
the status quo," Governor Eliot Spitzer Wednesday outlined
a broad range of policy proposals aimed at reforming state
government and reinvigorating the economy.
In his State of the State speech at the state Capitol in
Albany, Governor Spitzer repeated themes he sounded throughout
his campaign and again last Monday in his inaugural address
Saying it is a top priority of his administration to reverse
Upstate's economic decline and population losses, Governor
Eliot Spitzer Tuesday announced a broad new initiative,
the Renew New York Agenda, designed to spark an economic
resurgence in Upstate New York