The
causes and cures of legislative dysfunction in Albany will
be the focus of a panel discussion planned for The Business
Council's 2004 Annual Meeting, which is set for Wednesday-Friday
Sept. 22-24 at The Sagamore in Bolton Landing
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is
asking for public comments on proposed regulations regarding
Medicare benefits and the Medicare prescription drug card.
The proposals, which are now open for public comment, are
designed to help implement the 2003 Medicare Modernization
Act that created a new voluntary prescription drug program
in Medicare, a release from HHS said
ALBANY, N.Y. No matter how you measure it, New York State is still
No. 1 in combined state and local taxes, a Public Policy Institute
analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau data shows.
As of fiscal 2002, New York's state and local taxes averaged $4,645
for every state resident
Governor Pataki announced he has vetoed a bill passed by
the Legislature that would increase the minimum wage in New
York from $5.15 to $7.15 an hour.
'New York has to continue fighting for every job and we cannot
unilaterally put this state at a competitive disadvantage,"
the Governor wrote in his veto message
State
legislators have agreed to increase the state's minimum wage
in steps to $7.15 by January 2007. The
state's minimum was would increase to $6 per hour next January,
to $6.75 per hour in January 2006, and to $7
Mandating mental health coverage would increase insurance
premiums significantly for small businesses, placing them
at an economic disadvantage and putting affordable health
coverage further out of reach, The Business Council and other
business leaders told Senate Majority Leader Joseph L
New
York's workers' compensation premiums will not increase next
year.
The
state Insurance Department announced that decision late July
15. But assessments, a tax on premiums that all employers
must pay, will increase 6 percent this year
Two
prominent New York City-based business groups have staked
out different positions on proposals to significantly increase
the state's minimum wage.
The
New York City Partnership, a city-based group of business
leaders, has endorsed an increase in the state's minimum wage
to $7
Increasing
the minimum wage to $7 per hour would only reduce employment
opportunities for entry-level workers, especially low-skill
workers the minimum wage increase is supposedly intended to
help, according to a new study by Cornell University researchers
ALBANYNew York lags behind competing
states' job creation in almost every major
industrial sector, a new online report by
The Public Policy Institute shows.
The Institute, the research affiliate of
The Business Council of New York State, published
the first installment of Just
The Facts: Key Economic and Social Indicators
for New York State