ALBANY, N.Y. No matter how you measure it, New York State is still
No. 1 in combined state and local taxes, a Public Policy Institute
analysis of new U.S. Census Bureau data shows.
As of fiscal 2002, New York's state and local taxes averaged $4,645
for every state resident
Governor Pataki announced he has vetoed a bill passed by
the Legislature that would increase the minimum wage in New
York from $5.15 to $7.15 an hour.
'New York has to continue fighting for every job and we cannot
unilaterally put this state at a competitive disadvantage,"
the Governor wrote in his veto message
State
legislators have agreed to increase the state's minimum wage
in steps to $7.15 by January 2007. The
state's minimum was would increase to $6 per hour next January,
to $6.75 per hour in January 2006, and to $7
Mandating mental health coverage would increase insurance
premiums significantly for small businesses, placing them
at an economic disadvantage and putting affordable health
coverage further out of reach, The Business Council and other
business leaders told Senate Majority Leader Joseph L
New
York's workers' compensation premiums will not increase next
year.
The
state Insurance Department announced that decision late July
15. But assessments, a tax on premiums that all employers
must pay, will increase 6 percent this year
Two
prominent New York City-based business groups have staked
out different positions on proposals to significantly increase
the state's minimum wage.
The
New York City Partnership, a city-based group of business
leaders, has endorsed an increase in the state's minimum wage
to $7
Increasing
the minimum wage to $7 per hour would only reduce employment
opportunities for entry-level workers, especially low-skill
workers the minimum wage increase is supposedly intended to
help, according to a new study by Cornell University researchers
ALBANYNew York lags behind competing
states' job creation in almost every major
industrial sector, a new online report by
The Public Policy Institute shows.
The Institute, the research affiliate of
The Business Council of New York State, published
the first installment of Just
The Facts: Key Economic and Social Indicators
for New York State
The state should mandate changes in the New York City teachers'
contract before increasing state aid to city schools, a new
study from the Manhattan Institute concludes.
In fact, the study said, increasing funding of city schools
without structural and managerial reforms will prevent any
improvement in education for youngsters not now receiving
what New York's highest court has said they are constitutionally
entitled to: a "sound basic education
Two
key upstate New York newspapers have editorialized against
a proposed state-government mandate that would require individuals
and businesses to buy electricity from costly renewable sources.
"New
York's Public Service Commission should dismiss New York administrative
law Judge Eleanor Stein's recommendation that by the year
2013, fully 25 percent of retail electricity sales come from
renewable sources," the Ithaca Journal wrote in "Cautious
approach: Good intentions, unrealistic solution," a July 7
editorial