ALBANY—Fully half of the 62 counties in New York State trail the
nation in all five core measures of long-term economic growth included
in The Business Council's new Economic Growth Index. New York State as
a whole trails the nation in four of the five categories, giving it a
grade of D on the new index
In an effort to increase the number of qualified math and
science teachers in New York, the state's Higher Education
Services Corporation (HESC) has reopened the application
period for teaching initiative scholarships.
The scholarships were introduced in 2006 as part of a program
designed to boost the number of math and science teachers
in New York
In a victory for many New York State businesses, Governor
Eliot Spitzer has vetoed a bill that would have effectively
closed the state's only commercial hazardous waste landfill
and significantly added to the cost of industrial operations
and hazardous-waste remediation in New York State
After strong advocacy from The Business Council, Governor
Spitzer has taken action on several more bills of importance
to the Council and its members, adding to a string of positive
legislative outcomes for New York employers in 2007
In a victory for The Business Council, Governor Eliot Spitzer
has vetoed a bill that would have given trial lawyers a
fishing license to identify "deep pockets" in
lawsuits.
The bill would have let plaintiffs in liability lawsuits
get a court order to determine before trial the extent of
the insurance coverage the defendant is carrying that would
cover the claim
Upstate New York is not attracting enough college-educated
citizens to replace those moving to other states, according
to a new analysis by the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.
The analysis, which studied Census data showing the movement
of college-education Americans between states from 1995
to 2000, found that Upstate's population problem is largely
not caused by out-migration
Projected state budget gaps in each of the next three years are even larger than had been expected, according to revised estimates in a new report from the state Division of the Budget (DOB).
DOB is projecting budgets gaps of $3.6 billion in 2008-09, $5.3 billion in 2009-10, and $6.7 billion in 2010-11
The state's Insurance Department has formally approved
revisions to workers' compensation rates that will
decrease the average employer's costs by 20.5 percent, the
New York State Compensation Insurance Rating Board (CIRB)
has announced
The Rockefeller Institute will reprise its popular seminar
on doing information technology business with New York on
Wednesday August 8 at the Desmond Hotel & Conference
Center in Albany.
The seminar, which is co-sponsored by the Procurement Services
Group of the state Office of General Services (OGS), is
designed to help participants understand the state's IT
contracting processes for information technology products
and services
Governor
Spitzer has appointed Business
Council President and CEO Kenneth
Adams to serve on the
Empire State Stem Cell Board,
which will oversee a
$600 million program intended
to promote stem cell
research and development