Assembly
Speaker Sheldon Silver has proposed broad reforms for New
York's budget process, including requiring public authorities
to submit their budget information to the legislature for
review, moving all off-budget spending under the state's Health
Care Reform Act (HCRA) onto the state budget, and increasing
by 5 percent the money that goes to the state's rainy-day
fund
Citing
a $23 million dollar Medicaid burden that consumes nearly
all of the county's property taxes, Chemung County Executive
Thomas J. Santulli has asked Governor Pataki for a two-year
exemption from Medicaid requirements imposed by the state
The
Legislature should raise business taxes and fees by more than
$1 billion to pump additional spending into the budget proposed
by Governor Pataki, a union-funded think tank says.
The
proposal, which would boost overall corporate income tax revenue
by at least 50 percent, comes from the Fiscal Policy Institute
(FPI), which successfully pushed for the $2 billion increase
in personal-income taxes the Legislature enacted in 2003
The
Business Council has adopted policy priorities for the 2004
legislative session that emphasize opposition to new taxes,
support for energy policies that ensure an ample supply of
affordable and reliable electricity, workers' compensation
reform, steps to improve small businesses' access to affordable
health care, and more user-friendly environmental policies
The proportion of workers in New York who belong to unions
continued to drop in 2003, but the state remains the most
heavily unionized in the nation, according to a new report
from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
Nationwide, union membership dropped from 13
New York City will need to increase its electricity capacity
by 25 percent over the next four years, according to a new
report by New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s energy
policy task force.
The city must have a dependable source of electricity to
maintain its position as the financial, corporate and communications
capital of the world, the report said
Governor
George Pataki's 2004-05 budget grows spending at about twice
the rate of inflation, according to an analysis by the Manhattan
Institute.
"And
in all probability, the Legislature will add even more to
this amount before the budget is finally adopted," the report
said
Business
Council members can receive a substantial discount on The
Council's annual report on employers' compensation practices
if they agree to participate in the survey used to gather
the information.
Compdata
Surveys of Kansas City, which conducts and compiles the survey
for The Business Council, will send questionnaires to employers
across New York State in late March
Medical payments account for the largest share of employee
benefit costs, according to a new study by the U.S. Chamber
of Commerce.
The study, which the chamber has conducted for more than
fifty years, also showed that employee benefit costs made
up 42
Governor
Pataki introduced a proposed 2004-05 budget that would phase
in a corporate tax reduction for manufacturers whose operations
are concentrated in New York, while raising the minimum tax
for some corporations and eliminating some Medicaid services
to reduce costs