The Senate Republican Majority has unveiled a plan that would provide
$3.5 billion in relief for the state's small businesses and eliminate
the income tax and corporate franchise tax for all manufacturers.
The plan would save manufacturing companies in New York $550 million
over five years, the Senate's release said
We applaud Senate Majority Leader Joseph Bruno and the Senate Majority
for assembling this proposal. This tax-relief plan is well-structured,
well-targeted, badly needed, and much appreciated by the business community
and New York's taxpayers.
New York suffers severe economic harm from the nation's heaviest tax
burden, and from the nation's fourth-highest corporate taxes per capita
ALBANY—Immediate business tax relief and meaningful workers' compensation
reforms are among the key legislative priorities on which state lawmakers
will be graded on The Business Council's 2006 legislative report card,
the Council has told all state legislators.
The Council sent letters to all 212 state legislators with a publication
called Ahead of the Curve, which spells out the Council’s
priorities
New York's state taxes and spending remain significantly higher than those in most states, new data from the U.S. Census Bureau show.
New York State spent $6,892 per resident in fiscal 2004, 43.7 percent more than the average of all states. That figure was third-highest among the 50 states, behind Alaska and Wyoming
ALBANY—The Business Council today published the first report in
Comp Watch '06, a new series of reports documenting the high
costs of workers' compensation and the importance of reforms to rein in
those costs.
The Council today also launched a new electronic advocacy program to
enable employers to automatically send faxed notes to their elected officials
in Albany urging them to support comprehensive, cost-cutting workers'
comp reforms
Many property owners in New York saw smaller tax increases than
in previous years in part because of last year's cap on county Medicaid
costs, state Comptroller Alan Hevesi said in a new report.
The cap, passed last March by lawmakers, makes the state responsible
for any growth in the plan exceeding 3
The state should invest in scholarships to encourage the best and
brightest to become math and science teachers as a key step in reversing
New York's declining number of math, science, and engineering graduates,
Ed Reinfurt, vice president of The Business Council, has told state
lawmakers
State Comptroller Alan Hevesi has proposed 21 fiscal and budget
reforms that he said would help New York produce better and more
timely budgets.
The comptroller said his ideas are designed to help “to improve
how the Legislature, the Executive and the public actually work
together to design and implement the state’s budget
The Business Council is urging its members to understand and address
their compliance obligations under the new state lobbying law that
may affect businesses and employees that are involved in selling
goods and services to state and local governments.
“There is no doubt that the new ‘procurement lobbying
law’ will affect many employers in New York State that sell
goods and services to government in New York, even even for activities
by the employer that don’t constitute conventional lobbying,”
said Ken Pokalsky, the Council’s specialist in state laws
related to lobbying
New York State should radically overhaul its approach to Medicaid
and health-care policy to reduce costs while increasing the number
of New Yorkers who get taxpayer-funded Medicaid coverage, state
Attorney General Eliot Spitzer said Wednesday.
Recent high-tech advances “have made health care much more
expensive for individuals and employers who purchase insurance and
for taxpayers who fund the cost of Medicaid and other public health
programs,” Spitzer, a Democratic candidate for Governor in
2006, said in a luncheon address before the Chamber Alliance of
New York State (CANYS) in Albany