Business Council Chairman Peter I. Bijur has written to members of the
Council across the state, urging them to raise their voices in support
of New York's drive for higher standards in the schools.
And this effort was backed this week by a passionate call from former
Governor Hugh L
The Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform (GORR) has launched an on-line
database to give business a "one-stop" resource for addressing questions
on state-required business permits.
The new database, which is at www.nys-permits.org,
is the largest, most comprehensive permit database on the Internet, Governor
Pataki said
Signaling new momentum for mandate relief in Albany, advocates for the
state's school boards and municipalities praised a new study on state
mandates by The Public Policy Institute, and urged lawmakers to enact
the kind of mandate reform proposed in the study.
The book, The $163
Lightbulb: How Albany's Mandates Drive Up Your Local Taxes,
shows that New York could cut local taxes by $5 billion a year and
improve education and other services through mandate reform
ALBANY— New York's business community overwhelming believes that
New York should enact policies designed to rein in skyrocketing costs
of health care and health insurance, and to bring New York's health costs
more in line with the rest of the nation's, a new Business Council survey
shows
ALBANY—A new report by The Public Policy Institute of New York
State (PPI) argues that New York's tough new academic standards are important
to both students and employers, and should be neither relaxed nor delayed.
The report, which comes amid mounting public pressure to relax and/or
postpone the standards, is entitled Straight Talk About Higher Standards
Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno and members of the Senate Majority
have proposed eliminating the state gross receipts tax on electricity
and natural gas, a move that would reduce taxes on utility customers
by $710 million a year.
"The GRT is a hidden tax on consumers and business owners, but its effects
are quite clear: higher utility costs that make it more expensive to
live and create jobs in New York State," Senator Bruno said Dec
ALBANY— Local taxes in New York Statefar and away the highest
in the nationcould be cut by at least $5 billion a year if Governor
Pataki and the Legislature reform costly state mandates on municipalities
and school districts, a new book from The Public Policy Institute of
New York State says
By Ed Reinfurt
Any business owner will tell you that the key to prosperity is winning
customers' confidence and trust.
In America, this has been a truism of commerce in turn-of-the-century
general stores, in Manhattan's first department stores, in post-war supermarkets,
and in malls that have thrived in the last quarter century
New York's local and regional chambers of commerce have asked The Business
Council to manage the Chamber Alliance of New York State (CANYS).
Denise Murphy McGraw, The Council's director of regional affairs, will
be executive director of CANYS beginning in January. The Council will
coordinate all CANYS conferences, prepare its newsletter and other communications,
develop a web site, handle the group's finances, and serve as CANYS spokesperson
New York's Commercial Division of state Supreme Court has moved New
York "from a court system that often evoked frustration among businesses,
to a business court that is the envy of other states," according to Business
Council Chairman Peter Bijur.
Bijur, who is chairman and CEO of Texaco Inc