Strong opposition from The Business Council and many other groups helped
quash a number of trial lawyer-backed bills designed to expand liability
and, in the process, fatten trial lawyers' portfolios and bottom lines.
Opposition to expanded liability was so strong that the broader initiative
of tort reform gained considerable momentum, said Business Council President
Daniel B
A proposal to change the basis of employers' workers' comp premiums from payroll to "hours worked" has been rejected by the Legislature.
The Business Council had strongly opposed the hours-worked proposal, arguing that since workers' comp is intended to replace lost wages, employers' taxes for workers' comp should be based on wages
The Business Council has scored a major victory on one of its top legislative
priorities: a comprehensive unemployment insurance (UI) reform bill.
Governor Pataki is expected to sign the bill, which would:
Create new, more balanced UI tax tables.
Reform disqualification procedures so all employers whose accounts
might be tapped for benefits can introduce disqualifying evidence
in an applicant's benefits hearing
Employers oppose
new government intrusion into the health-care market because
private-sector efforts have improved quality and held back
the growth in health costs, Business Council staff told
national journalists at two recent forums
ALBANY A new agreement between The Business Council and the New York State
AFL-CIO on a bill to reform the state's unemployment insurance (UI) system "will bring
New York's unemployment insurance system into the 21st century and save employers
millions of dollars in the process," according to Daniel B
As the Legislative session nears an adjournment scheduled for June 18, The
Council is sustaining its efforts to convince lawmakers to reject a bill that
would expand HMO liability.
The bill would impose a new and higher liability
standard for decisions that arise from a health-care
contract, said Elliott A
The Business Council has asked its members to join the call for tort reform
to curtail New York's out-of-control lawsuit industry-and members are responding
in significant numbers.
Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh urged over 1,200 manufacturing
members to write to lawmakers urging them to support tort reform and to reject
proposals to expand liability
Robert Tarnow, a founder of The Business Council and a longtime executive
of Goulds Pumps in Seneca Falls, died on June 2.
Tarnow expanded Goulds Pumps into the global marketplace and increased its
revenues more than 12-fold during his tenure as its president, chief executive
officer and chairman
A bill that would mandate "mental health
parity" in employee health benefits in New York will be discussed at the
next meeting of The Business Council's Labor and Human Resources Committee.The
meeting will take place from 10 a.m.-3 p.m. Wednesday, June 24 at Business
Council headquarters in Albany
Thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in state and local tax revenues
face an uncertain future unless lawmakers pass a bill to let mutual life insurance
companies change their corporate structure, the Council said Wednesday.
Unless lawmakers pass this bill, New York's mutual life companies will have
strong incentives to create new jobs and to move existing ones out of state,
said Business Council President Daniel B