New York State Education Commissioner Richard P. Mills will
be the featured speaker at a Nov. 15 luncheon in Westchester
County designed to encourage business leaders to get involved
in advocacy for public-school reform.
The seminar is part of The Business Council’s “Engage
New York” seminar series
"Questionable" financial practices in the state’s
Health Care Reform Act (HCRA) program could mean taxpayers
will have to spend an additional $400 million this year, according
to a new report released by Comptroller Alan Hevesi.
The report said that HCRA spending has outpaced revenue growth
by more than $1 billion over the past two years
In response to strong demand from its members, The Business
Council is forming a Homeland Security Council (HSC) to help
Council members learn about and take advantage of procurement
opportunities in homeland security.
The new council expects to inaugurate a variety of activities
in 2005
In an era in which jobs are becoming more knowledge-based
and requiring more education and training, New York State
must keep its academic standards high, measure student achievement
based on them, and hold schools, teachers, and students accountable
for results, The Business Council’s education-policy
specialist testified at a state hearing this month
For the second time this month, a major national study of
the economic climates of the 50 states has ranked New York
near the bottom.
A new study from the non-partisan Tax Foundation, the “State
Business Tax Climate Index,” concluded that New York’s
“tax climate” for business ranks 49th, ahead of
only Hawaii’s
New York State has one of the nation’s least hospitable
business climates for small businesses and entrepreneurs,
a new comparison of all 50 states and the District of Columbia
has concluded.
New York ranked 45th among the 50 states and the District
of Columbia on the ninth annual Small Business Survival Index
2004, a ranking of the policy environment for entrepreneurship
across the nation
A new survey of the eating and exercise habits of Upstate
New Yorkers illustrates an opportunity and incentive for employers
to find ways that help motivate their workers to exercise
more and eat smarter, according to the health insurer that
conducted the study
ALBANY—U.S.
Rep Thomas M. Reynolds (R-Erie County) will be the keynote speaker at
The Business Council's business-to-business conference on homeland security
issues scheduled for Tuesday, October 19, at the University of Rochester.
The conference
is a reprise of a heavily attended homeland-security conference held last
spring in collaboration with Empire State Development (ESD)
Business Council President Daniel B. Walsh has invited state
legislators to comment on the Vote for Jobs Index and their
individual scores. Legislators' comments would be posted on
their own individual report cards.
The index, which was launched by The Business Council on
September 30, scores legislators based on their actions or
inactions on bills that address legislative priorities identified
by The Council earlier this year
ALBANYDavid F. Shaffer, president of the Public Policy Institute of New York State, will discuss Medicaid and other factors that drive up local government costs and local taxes in New York State at a panel discussion at 8:30 a.m. Thursday, October 7, at the GreenField Manor in Lancaster, Erie County