President/CEO, The Business Council of New York State, Inc.
Senate Finance Committee and Assembly Ways and Means Committee February 16, 2005
Chairman Johnson, Chairman Farrell and distinguished members of the committees, thank you for inviting us to appear before you today.
This is the last, but by no means least important, of your scheduled hearings on the budget
State Supreme Court Justice Leland DeGrasse of Manhattan
has ordered the state to ensure that within four years the
New York City school system has another $7.4 billion a year
to spend — on top of the $12.9 billion a year the system
already consumes
ALBANYFourteen
New York State elementary schools in all parts of the state will receive
the highest honor given to schools by New York State's private sector:
the 2005 Pathfinder Award. The Business Council gives this award to honor
schools that show marked improvement from one year to the next on students'
state test scores
A new study by the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston confirms that New York's taxes are by far the highest in the country -- and finds that social needs don't seem to explain the heavy tax burden.
The "tax effort" required of New York's workers and businesses is 43 percent higher than the national average, according to the study
The Business Council will sponsor a series of seminars designed
to give business owners information about their real-property
tax assessments and how they can be most effectively challenged.
The Council has scheduled its “Take Control of Your
Property Tax Assessments” seminar for Tuesday, April
5, at the Holiday Inn Syracuse in Liverpool, and Wednesday
April 6, at the Holiday Inn in Saratoga Springs
ALBANY—A responsible and timely state budget and cost-cutting reforms
to Medicaid and workers' compensation will be among the key legislative
priorities on which state lawmakers will be graded on The Business Council's
2005 legislative report card, the Council has told all state legislators
New York State's debt has risen sharply in recent years to pay for "unsustainable
levels of government spending," Comptroller Alan G. Hevesi said in proposing
tight new limits on state borrowing.
State leaders even increased borrowing and reduced pay-as-you-go
spending on capital projects when there were annual surpluses
of up to $3 billion during the late 1990s, Comptroller Hevesi
said
ALBANY—New York’s successful effort to transform society
through welfare reform a decade ago proves that the state can enact cost-cutting
Medicaid reform today despite stiff opposition from special interests,
Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh said today.
“The critics and cynics who said 'welfare reform' would never happen
in New York State were wrong
ALBANY—Karen St. Hilaire, Executive Director of the Saint Lawrence County Chamber of Commerce, has been awarded the Chamber Alliance of New York State’s (CANYS) Excellence in Leadership Award for 2005. St. Hilaire received the honor on January 19th at the annual CANYS Legislative and Leadership conference in Albany, NY
Governor Pataki has proposed a 2005-06 budget that includes
funding for his new Upstate economic-development plan, Medicaid
cost-containment measures designed to contain growth in local
taxes, a faster phase-out of the 2003 personal income-tax
surcharge, and a variety of new increases in taxes and fees