The state Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC)
has adopted “emergency" regulations to restore
limits on industrial emissions that were overturned by a state
Supreme Court in May.
DEC’s own estimates showed that these stringent emission
rules, which will require additional reductions of sulfur
dioxide and nitrogen emissions at power plants, will raise
statewide wholesale power rates by 5 percent, according Ken
Pokalsky, director of environmental and economic development
programs for The Council
A closely watched index of employment expectations among
New York manufacturers “dropped markedly,” the
Federal Reserve Bank of New York’s Buffalo Branch reported
in its latest monthly analysis.
The analysis found that the index for the average employee
work week, which The Wall Street Journal calls a
“telltale” for future hiring, dropped from 22
ALBANYUpstate New York taxpayers paid as much as $6 billion more in state and local taxes than they would in an average state, mostly because of the state's far-above-average levels of spending on Medicaid and local government payrolls, a new report from The Public Policy Institute of New York State shows
State
Senate and Assembly members approved a 2004-05 budget that
would add as much as $1 billion or more in spending, and hundreds
of millions in new borrowing, to Governor Pataki's proposed
fiscal plan.
The Governor said the Legislature's budget is too costly and
will require him to veto some of the additional spending
In
a victory for The Business Council, New York's manufacturing
sector, and the environment, the state Legislature has repealed
an onerous fee on businesses doing environmental cleanups.
This
surcharge, imposed as part of last year's Brownfield Act,
could add up to $1,000 or more for every dump truck load of
contaminated soil removed from brownfield sites, and was expected
to add at least $20 million per year to the cost of brownfields
and other cleanup projects in New York
Less
than a month after the state Insurance Department rejected
a proposal to increase average workers' comp premiums by 29
percent, the department has received a new request to increase
ratesthis time, by 9.5 percent
Five
Republican state Senators were endorsed by the union-funded
Working Families Party the day the Senate agreed to increase
New York's minimum wage by 39 percent, the New York Sun
reported.
The
union party had nominated challengers to the five incumbents
only days before, but arranged for the challengers to bow
out in favor of the Republican candidates, according to the
newspaper
ALBANY—The Business Council today strongly defended state lawmakers
attacked this week by a union moving to punish the lawmakers for their
efforts to restrain growth in the nation's highest tax burden.
"You and your colleagues have the courage to stand up for New York's
taxpayers," Business Council President Daniel B
New York State should adopt a master plan for the state’s
transportation system that focuses on regional and international
trade corridors, technology efficiencies, and increasing collaboration
between state and foreign transit officials, The Business
Council said in testimony before a state advisory panel on
August 5
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