The noted economist John Maynard Keynes once said, "The avoidance of taxes is the only intellectual pursuit that carries any reward." He's almost right -- but there's just one thing better: cutting taxes, so that no more avoidance is needed.
That has been Governor Pataki's constant focus every day, and it will remain so as long as he holds public office
Arthur Roth,
Commissioner of the state Department of Taxation and Finance, will be a
featured speaker at The Business Council's annual Conference on State Taxation
June 20-22 at the Sheraton in Saratoga Springs.
Advance registration
for this popular annual conference is strongly encouraged, said Ellen Muir,
director of conference development for The Business Council
The Legislature completed
work on the 2000-01 state budget on Friday morning, May 5, enacting a long-sought
repeal of the gross receipts tax on employers' energy utility bills.
The final package also features
a key last-minute addition, repeal of the state sales tax on transmission
and distribution of gas and electricity for commercial customers
The Business Council is urging
state lawmakers to enact new workers' compensation reforms to enhance the
reforms of 1996--and to reject new proposals that would inflate employers'
workers' comp costs.
Before the 1996 reforms,
New York's comp costs were some 57 percent above the national average, said
Kerry Kirwan, The Council's legislative analyst specializing in workers'
comp
ALBANYProposed
school budgets in districts across New York State would increase property
taxes at more than twice the inflation rate, at the same time districts are
receiving a record $1.2 billion increase in aid from the state, a new "School
Tax Watch" study by The Public Policy Institute of New York State finds
The Chamber Alliance of New
York State (CANYS) and The Business Council are planning a Washington "lobby
day" for New York State's business community on June 14.
This will be the first such
lobby day in nearly a decade, according to Denise Murphy McGraw, executive
director of CANYS and director of regional affairs for The Council
Governor George Pataki, Senate
Majority Leader Joseph Bruno, and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver Tuesday
announced agreement on a $77.5 billion state budget that includes $1.2 billion
in new tax cuts and a new debt-reform statute.
The leaders said that legislators
would begin passing bills Wednesday, and Senator Bruno predicted that the
budget would be completed by Thursday or Friday
ALBANY
The Business Council today called on the legislature to adopt needed reforms
to the states Superfund program as part of any refinancing effort.
These reformswhich are being adopted by an increasing number of stateswould
base cleanups on actual risks at a site, provide post-cleanup liability releases,
and reduce or eliminate liability for entities that did not cause contamination
The Council is asking members
and state lawmakers to consider a recent speech on privacy by Louis Gerstner,
chairman and CEO of IBM, in ongoing discussions of privacy issues.
Earlier his month, Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh sent state
legislators and Council members a reprinted speech on privacy that Gerstner
gave last month
The
Business Councils electronic-advocacy campaign
to encourage repeal of the states gross receipts tax
(GRT) on energy is continuing, with 1329 persons having sent
24,207 pro-repeal letters to lawmakers and their staff