News

01
Jun
2005
The Business Council is focusing on several key energy-related issues in the weeks before the legislative is scheduled to end June 21. “The cost of power in New York State is a significant competitive issue, and our high costs, growing demand, and slowing growth in capacity are worsening this competitive problem,” said Ken Pokalsky, director of environmental and economic development programs
31
May
2005
The Business Council is urging U.S. Senators Hilary Clinton and Charles Schumer (D-NY) to support the U.S. - Dominican Republic - Central American Free Trade Agreement (DR-CAFTA) as a way to enhance trade opportunities and create jobs. “Enhanced trade export opportunities are crucial to the continued growth of business in New York and to the jobs that these opportunities create,” wrote Business Council President Daniel B
27
May
2005
A bill that would impose strict new regulations on how one industrial sector in New York tells customers about products “represents government regulatory overkill of the highest order,” The Business Council has told legislators. The Business Council is opposing the bill (A
27
May
2005
Rising health care costs will only be reined in when innovation and market choice are unleashed in the health care system, agreed two industry experts at a forum on consumer-driven health plans in Albany May 26. The forum, sponsored by the Manhattan Institute's Empire Center, featured speakers Regina Herzlinger, a professor at the Harvard School of Business, and Scott Gottlieb, a resident fellow at the American Enterprise Institute, a public policy think tank
25
May
2005
New York State can pull itself out of "dire" economic straights by building an environment more friendly and supportive to small businesses, according to a new report by Assemblyman Joseph D. Morelle (D-Rochester). Assemblyman Morelle said the goal of his report was to lay out steps necessary to create an entrepreneurial environment in New York
25
May
2005
ALBANY—The Business Council’s Board of Directors voted Tuesday May 24 to formally oppose a proposed constitutional amendment that would “reform” New York State’s budget process. The proposed amendment would eliminate the strong-executive budget process created by former Governors Al Smith and Franklin Delano Roosevelt, and recently affirmed by the state’s Court of Appeals
18
May
2005
U.S. Senators Charles Schumer and Hillary Clinton were the featured speakers at the Chamber Alliance of New York State’s (CANYS) sixth annual New York Day in Washington, May 11-12 in the nation’s capital. More than 100 small business people and chamber members CANYS participated in the two-day event
17
May
2005
Echoing strong arguments advanced by The Business Council and others, a federal appeals court has declared that New York State's controversial, union-friendly "labor neutrality" law is pre-empted by the National Labor Relations Act (NLRA) and a long line of case law based on it
17
May
2005
The Business Council is firmly opposing a bill that would undermine high education standards and introduce subjectivity to school assessments, a memo of opposition filed by the Business Council said. The bill, S.3192/Saland A.6286/Brodsky, would create “portfolio performance-based assessments
16
May
2005
New York State’s workers’ compensation program needs immediate reform to curb high costs and help employers, Business Council President and CEO Daniel B. Walsh told Governor Pataki in a May 13 letter. “The state's business community needs real reforms to workers' comp and they need them fast,” Walsh wrote