Overview:
The first meeting of the general conference committee focused on organizational
issues and a review of the legislative leaders' priorities for the coming
conference process. The meeting took place at 11 a.m. Wednesday, April 5.
Senate
Majority Leader Joseph Bruno said Senate budget priorities are: an increase
in the EPIC prescription drug program for seniors; an increase in the Tuition
Assistance Program (TAP); a tax deduction for tuition payments; investment
in a "NY Soars" program for improving New York's airports; a program
to retain and support teachers; increased education aid; and tax cuts
Governor Pataki and key legislative
leaders have announced a three-way agreement on the "framework"
for a state budget and on the amount of funds available for that budget.
Conference committees comprising
members of the Assembly and Senate will begin hammering out the details
of a budget Wednesday, April 5, the leaders said
The Citizens Budget Commission,
a respected civic organization based in New York City, issued a report urging
Governor Pataki and the Legislature to reduce the gross receipts tax and
slow the growth in state spending.
"An exceptionally
high tax on utility receipts is economically harmful because it raises energy
costs for businesses and thereby puts firms in New York at a competitive
disadvantage," said the CBC report, Recommendations for the New
York State Budget For Fiscal Year 2001
The Business Council is urging
the state Legislature to support a proposal by Assembly Minority Leader
John Faso to provide an education tax credit to offset education costs from
kindergarten through college.
The proposal is part of the
Assembly Minority's $1.4 billion "family
and jobs tax cut package" announced March 15
The Legislature and Governor
Pataki have agreed to increase the state's minimum wage for waiters and
other food-service workers who get tips from the current $2.90 an hour to
$3.30 rather than the $3.50 an hour that might have applied under
the initial version of the state's new minimum wage law
New
York's securities industry is driving the economic boom downstate and generating
much of the tax revenues swelling Albany's surplus. But the industry is creating
more jobs in other states, and New York risks losing even more growth in this
industry unless a key tax reform is enacted, a new report concludes
Assembly legislation calling for repeal of the gross receipts tax on
energy utility bills has drawn support from 39 members of the majority
conference, Assemblyman Robin Schimminger, chief sponsor of the measure,
has announced.
Meanwhile, The Business Council and chambers of commerce around the
state began inviting businesses to use a new e-lobbying system
to contact members of the Legislature on the GRT issue
Malcolm Wilson, 50th governor of New York State and a longtime member
of the Board of Trustees of The Public Policy Institute of New York State,
died March 13.
"Governor Wilson brought commitment and class to state government," said
Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh
The Republican Assembly Minority has proposed a $1.38 billion tax-cut
program that includes the elimination of the energy gross receipts tax
this year and a suspension of state sales taxes on gasoline and diesel
fuel for the coming summer.
"Business leaders keep telling us that elimination of the gross receipts
tax on energy is the single most important action the state can take
to spur job growth - and we're listening," said Assembly Minority Leader
John Faso
Restoring health-quality grants The Business Council and two western
New York health-care groups are urging lawmakers to fund two grant programs
designed to seek new ways to measure and improve health-care quality.
The Business Council, the Niagara Health Quality Coalition, and the Rochester
Health Commission want lawmakers to restore funding for the Health Information
and Quality Improvement grant program and the Quality Measurement grant
program, said Elliott Shaw, director of government affairs for The Council
and its health-care specialist