Governor
Pataki and legislative leaders have approved $500 million
in new initiatives, including new investments in high-tech
R&D and nine new economic development zones.
To
create new state revenues, lawmakers also expanded legal gambling
by authorizing creation of six casinos, three each in the
Catskills and the Buffalo-Niagara Falls region
The percentage
of employers who think their health-care costs are "out of
control" is up from 48 percent in 2000 to 59 percent this
year, a new Harris Interactive survey shows.
As a result,
human resources directors of most employers of all sizes plan
changes in health plans over the next two years that will
shift greater costs to their employees
The Business
Council's workers' compensation specialist is visiting members
across the state to learn more about their experiences with
the workers' comp system and to seek their ideas for legislative,
regulatory, and administrative reforms to that system
New York's
economic slowdown this year will trigger an increase in state
unemployment insurance (UI) taxes in 2002, Rich Schwarz, The
Council's tax specialist, has projected.
As of Sept.
7, New York State employers had paid $1
New York's
fourth-grade students performed better on standardized math
tests than last year's fourth-graders, but middle-school students'
results on English and math tests remained static or declined
slightly, results from the 2001 tests showed
ALBANYNew
York urgently needs to site a proposed electricity generating facility in
Albany County - and at least a dozen other new power plants - to avoid the
risk of serious damage to the state's economic health, a new white paper by
The Public Policy Institute of New York State argues
The head of
New York's Workers' Compensation Board (WCB) praised New York businesses
for their flexibility and aggressiveness on workers' comp claims stemming
from the Sept. 11 terrorism.
Robert Snashall,
chairman of the Workers' Compensation Board, spoke at the Oct. 10 meeting
of The Council's Workers' Compensation Committee in Albany
Governor George
Pataki has asked the federal government for $54 billion in new aid to rebuild
downtown Manhattan, reinvigorate the state's economy, and enhance the state's
security.
"We must make
restoring the strength of the New York economy one of our top priorities,
and, to do that, we must rebuild our nation's financial capital," the Governor
said in announcing the "Rebuild NY - Renew America" plan Oct
ALBANYNew
uncertainties about New York's economic future make it more important than
ever that state lawmakers help make affordable health insurance more accessible
to sole proprietors, Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh said today.
The Business
Council this week has stepped up calls to lawmakers urging them to pass legislation
that would let sole proprietors buy health insurance at group rates through
chambers of commerce and other business associations
New
York's research institutions may be asked to add new priorities
to their research agendas in the wake of the Sept. 11 terrorism
attacks, U.S. Rep. Sherwood Boehlert (R-New Hartford), chair
of the House Science Committee, said in an Oct