Despite real savings created by reforms in 1996, New York's
workers' compensation costs remain far above the national
average and a significant competitive disadvantage for the
state, The Business Council has told state officials in testimony
New Jersey, still suffering the effects of last year's sweeping
business tax increases, took new steps this year that are
likely to drive taxes higher.
The Garden State managed to increase taxes this year without
raising broad-base taxes as it did last year
Internal migration patterns consistently show that Americans
move out of states with high taxes and flock to states with
lower taxes, a recent study by an Ohio University economist
shows.
"While many focus on federal income taxes during April, people
living in high tax states are literally moving to places where
the burden is lower," said Marc Duff of the Taxpayers Network,
which commissioned the study by Ohio University economist
Richard Vedder
Responding to a request from The Business Council, the state
Department of Taxation and Finance says it will work to ease
the effect on businesses of the short notice many merchants
received of a change in the state sales tax that took effect
last month
New
Yorkers tend to rate their health-maintenance organizations
(HMOs) somewhat more highly than consumers nationwide, according
to a new report designed to help employers and employees to
evaluate New York HMOs on a variety of criteria
The
Business Council is urging Governor George Pataki to veto
a bill that would impose new record-keeping requirements on
employers whose workers handle or use toxic substances.
The
bill (S.2452-Onorato, A.8014-Nolan) is needlessly burdensome
to employers and is pre-empted by federal standards enforced
by the U
New
York City paid $525 million in settlements and judgments from
claims for personal injury, property damage, and contract
disputes in fiscal year 2002, down by $55.5 million from the
previous year, a new report from the city comptroller said
The state Court of Appeals ruling that New York State must
spend more on New York City schools to make sure that schoolchildren
there receive an adequate education will create "enormous
political problems" next year and will give unusual powers
to a single judge, the head of The Public Policy Institute,
the research affiliate of The Business Council, said today
In
a ruling likely to have major budget and political implications
for New York State, the state's highest court has held that
New York City is not adequately teaching its schoolchildren,
and that the city and state must do more to ensure a "sound
basic education" for those students
New
York State has 44 percent more physicians per capita than
the nation as a whole, a new analysis shows.
The
report, "The Facts About New York's Physician Supply," showed
that there were 413 doctors for every 100,000 New Yorkers
in 2001, citing statistics from the American Medical Association