Gov. George Pataki has been invited to be the featured speaker at The Business Council's annual Small Business Day 1998, which will take place Monday, March 30, at the Empire State Plaza Convention Center in Albany. Small Business Day, which is co-sponsored by the National Federation of Independent Business in cooperation with many local chambers of commerce and business associations, provides an opportunity for representatives of smaller businesses to lobby lawmakers about important issues facing small business. Both formal and informal interactions are expected to take place among business representatives and legislators, legislative leaders, Governor Pataki, and lawmakers' key staff. Small Business Day '98 will focus on issues identified by the small business community as key areas in which the state still must improve. The formal program will include briefings and panel discussions regarding taxes, continued workers' compensation reform, labor issues, and civil justice reform. Visiting business representatives will also have ample opportunities to raise any issue in informal interactions with their government representatives. In previous years, the persuasive efforts of small business representatives have led to a number of important improvements in the business climate, including historic tax decreases, a 25 percent reduction in workers' compensation, and many important changes in how the state conducts its business.
"Our challenge this year is to add to the gains made by small business in previous years," said Daniel B. Walsh, president of The Business Council. "We our urging our members to embrace this opportunity."