U.S. small businesses pay up to 68 percent of all tort liability
costs borne by business, even though they bring in only 25
percent of the nation’s total business revenue, according
to a new survey by the United States Chamber of Commerce Institute
for Legal Reform
ALBANY—Hatch
Leonard Naples, Inc., a full-service insurance agency headquartered in
Rochester and with offices in Buffalo, Syracuse, and Albany, has received
the Business Council Insurance Fund's 2003 Top Producer Award.
The honor
was presented to the agency in May in recognition of the organization's
outstanding sales performance and contributions to the growth of The Council's
Insurance Fund
To
help rein in workers' comp costs that are among the nation's
highest on a costs-per-case basis, New York State should
require the use of objective medical guidelines to evaluate
injuries and illnesses in workers' comp cases, according
to the latest in a series of reports on workers' compensation
reform from The Business Council
A set of stringent environmental emissions rules adopted
by the Department of Environmental Conservation last year
were deemed invalid by a State Supreme Court Judge last Tuesday
for violating a 1984 environmental statute.
The emission rules, designed to curb acid rain by requiring
additional reductions of sulfur dioxide and nitrogen emissions
at power plants, would have raised statewide wholesale power
rates by 5 percent, according DEC estimates
The last
thing New York's economy needs is a government mandate telling us what
kind of power we must buy and driving up our costs.
But that's
what the state Public Service Commission (PSC) is being asked to do. In
today's recommended decision sent to the PSC, a state administrative law
judge has urged the administration to require consumers and businesses
to buy energy from sources dictated by government and at costs that are
now well above already-high market prices
The
Business Council is urging lawmakers to reject a proposal
to expand the state's "bottle bill" because it would effectively
add a new tax on consumers and impose a new burden on supermarkets
and the beverage industry
A "recommended decision" issued by an administrative law
judge urges the state Public Service Commission (PSC) to require
consumers and businesses to buy electricity from renewable
sources-power that is generally more costly than electricity
generated by conventional energy sources
ALBANYCommunity School 92, in Community School District 12 in the
Bronx, will receive The Business Council's 2004 Pathfinder Award in
a ceremony at 1 p.m. June 16 at the school. The award honors schools
that show high improvement from one year to the next as measured by their
students' scores on state tests
A proposed Constitutional amendment approved by both houses
of the Legislature, making significant changes in the state
budget process, would shift power from the governor to the
Legislature and ultimately result in higher spending and taxes,
according to independent budget expert E
The
state Assembly has proposed a $6.1 billion increase in state
aid to education over five years-which it says can be done
without raising taxes. The plan would add $1.23 billion this
year to the aid to schools statewide