Forum on Property Taxes

The Chamber and the Rome Business and Professional Women's Club will present the Forum on Property Taxes, with Oneida County Executive Tony Picente, Rome Mayor Jim Brown, and Rome City School District Superintendent Jeff Simons. It will be held on Wednesday, October 17 at The Beeches. Check-in begins at 7 am, with a breakfast buffet at 7:15am and the program runs from 7:45am to 9am.

RSVP 337-1700

                      Posted: Sep 24, 2007

Rating board announces significant decrease in average workers' compensation premium, assessments

The state¹s Insurance Department has formally approved revisions to workers¹ compensation rates that will decrease the average employer's costs by 20.5 percent, the New York State Compensation Insurance Rating Board (CIRB) has announced. This a huge achievement for the Business Council and the Chambers that supported the reform. In the end, our businesses win with lower rates and our workers win with higher benefits, a win-win situation for everyone. For more information, see the Business Council's report.

                      Posted: Aug 3, 2007

Rome Chamber of Commerce makes statement to Department of Energy

William K. Guglielmo, President of the Rome Area Chamber of Commerce has issued the following statement to the Department of Energy regarding the National Interest Electric Transmission Corridor Designations:

“While the Rome Area Chamber of Commerce is fully aware of the need for establishing energy transmission corridors, our business community is opposed to the proposed National Interest Electric Transmission Corridors in New York State at this time. The reason is simple. The proposed corridors are premature and will serve to draw attention away from the real problem facing New York State, that of inadequate electrical generating capacity in or near the areas that are growing the fastest in energy demands, the so-called deep-pocket areas. Moreover, the proposed corridors will dictate where future generation plants will be sighted and will offer only a temporary solution to a complex problem that needs to be solved through careful planning and strategic management of both the generating and transmitting infrastructure of the state.

Instead of solving New York’s future electrical energy problems, these corridors will further exacerbate the State’s energy crisis by offering an easy fix to a complex energy problem that needs to be handled by the state’s own energy commission and free market system pressure that will draw new entrants into the generation market as the demand for increased supply makes investment more attractive.

In other words, by promoting the transmission of upstate power to downstate areas, the corridor will serve to further stifle the construction of new generating capacity downstate at the expense of upstate economics. It will also serve to entice the import of Canadian Hydro Electrical power, which will increase our demand for foreign energy in stark contrast to the intent of the National Energy Act of 2005.

Cheap, reliable energy is a must for the future of our upstate businesses. We need both the generating and transmission infrastructure to ensure that we can meet our future needs and attract new businesses to the region. The corridors at this time are not the right answer. They only address part of the problem and will lead to a greater dependence on foreign energy. A great deal more strategic planning must take place before these permanent pathways are etched into our lands, which will impact our future economic growth and prosperity. Downstate energy needs cannot become the driving force that shapes our upstate economic future.

Yes, we have an imbalance in our system, but this is not the answer. This is not the time, nor the place for these corridors in New York State. New York needs to fix its own energy problems. Let us decide where generation plants are needed and where they will be located, before you draw lines on the map that will control our future.

Thank you.”

William K. Guglielmo. President
Rome Area Chamber of Commerce

                      Posted: June 12, 2007

Upstateblog.net

Upstateblog.net is a forum for news, ideas, and comment on the economy of upstate New York. Upstateblog.net is a project of The Public Policy Institute of New York State, the research affiliate of The Business Council of New York State. For the latest news, visit their website at upstateblog.net/.

                      Posted: January 10, 2007

Legislative session winds down after gains for business

Matthew Maguire, Business Council Staff (June 22, 2007)

After strong advocacy by The Business Council, chambers and other allies, the Legislature moved towards the end of its regular session by extending the Power for Jobs program for another year, and by laying aside a number of anti-employer bills, including paid family leave, pre-judgment interest in tort claims, and restrictions on pharmaceutical marketing.

The legislative session was marked by positive outcomes on a number of bills directly related to the priorities identified by Business Council members in a survey conducted late last year. In that survey, Council members overwhelmingly identified employee health care as their top cost-of-doing-business concern. The survey also showed strong employer concern about costs of workers' compensation, energy, and business taxes.

Workers' compensation reform:After historic negotiations among Governor Spitzer, Business Council President Kenneth Adams, the state AFL-CIO, and the state Legislature, agreement was reached in early March on bill that includes long-sought workers' compensation reforms. The reform package is expected to cut employers' costs by 10 to 15 percent, with more savings to follow, and increase benefits for injured workers.

Rejecting anti-competitive tax increases:Despite months of pressure to substantially increase business taxes under the guise of "closing loopholes," Governor Spitzer and state lawmakers in early April agreed on a budget that reduces New York's primary business-tax rate and provides especially significant tax cuts for thousands of manufacturing companies, while substantially reducing new tax costs that had been proposed for banks.

The Business Council had strongly urged lawmakers to resist the temptation to increase the tax burden on businesses.

Here is a quick review of other priority issues on which The Business Council was most active in lobbying throughout the legislative session.

A paid family-leave mandate:Despite strong pressure from advocates, the state Senate declined to approve a measure that would have required employers to offer paid family leaves through the state's disability system.

The Council argued that this idea would impose new costs and burdens on employers in the form of replacement worker costs and overtime. It would also disrupt schedules and create staffing gaps, the Council argued.

The failure of the paid family-leave proposals came after the Council, affiliated chambers of commerce, and Council members mounted a broad advocacy campaign to oppose the idea. Hundreds of individuals from businesses across the state telephoned, faxed, and emailed state legislators to urge them to reject paid family-leave mandate proposals.

Proposals to increases health-insurance costs:The Legislature declined to approval several measures, each of which was strongly opposed by The Business Council, that would have, in different ways, increased New York's already above-average health-insurance costs. For example, the full Legislature did not approve:

• Two bills to redistribute cash from health insurers to hospitals.Both the Senate and the Assembly declined to consider two different bills that would redirect money from health insurers to hospitals in New York State. One bill would have affected only hospitals in suburban New York City; the other would have had statewide effect.

The Council argued that the likely effect of the bills was an increase in health-insurance costs for employers. The funding proposal is also inconsistent with the Berger Commission efforts to close and consolidate hospitals to reduce excess capacity and duplication of services, the Council argued.

• Several bills that would have created a new health-insurance mandate without subjecting them to a mandate-review process.New York State has approved creation of a mandate-review commission with the express goal of evaluating the costs of health-insurance mandates before they take effect. New York State already imposes more than 40 mandates on health-insurance policies, more than most other states, and it has been estimated that these mandates inflate New York's health-insurance costs by some 12 percent. • Separate bills that would have led to higher health-insurance premiums by unfairly preventing health insurers from recovering medical expensespaid by an insurer from a settlement in which a third party is determined to have caused the insured party's injuries. The Senate has not yet approved its version of the bill. The Assembly bill was to be debated on the floor on Friday, June 22.

Economic Development Power/Power for Jobs:The Legislature voted to extend these crucial programs for one year.

New York's electricity costs that are the nation's fifth highest, 57 percent above the national average, according to recent information from the Energy Information Administration. This cost is a major competitive disadvantage for New York State businesses.

The Power for Jobs and economic development power programs offer employers reduced-rate power in exchange for a pledge to create or retain jobs in New York. Many companies have taken advantage of the programs.

Wicks Law reform:Governor Spitzer announced earlier this month an agreement to make changes to the state's notorious Wicks Law.

New York's one-of-a-kind Wicks Law requires local governments and school districts to use more than one contractor on any public construction project with estimated costs of $50,000 or more. The union-friendly law Wicks Law forces the state and every municipality and school district to hire four contractors for public-construction projects, rather than hire a general contractor, as is generally done on large private projects.

Pharmaceutical market interference:The Senate declined to approve a bill that would prohibit drug companies from providing promotional materials to physicians. By doing so, it would isolate one sector of the business community and subject it to a litany of rules, reports, and penalties for practices common across all sectors of society ­ the legitimate marketing of goods and services.

Shareholder remote participation:The Senate also declined to approve a bill that would impose significant new obligations on New York State incorporated companies by requiring corporations with more than one hundred shareholders to implement "reasonable measures" to allow remote participation and voting by shareholders. These requirements would include providing remote participants an opportunity to read or hear the proceedings of the meeting "substantially concurrently" with such proceedings. And it would also require corporations to implement mechanisms to verify that remote participants are shareholders.

Expanded bottle bill:The Senate rejected a proposal to expand the state's "bottle bill." The Council had argued that this bill would impose a new burden and new costs on supermarkets, the beverage industry, and consumers.

Net regulation:The Senate rejected a proposal to tell companies that own fiberoptic cables what they can and can't do in scheduling transmission over those cables. The Council had argued that the proposal was an attempt to regulate at the state level activity that unfolds globally.

Pre-judgment interest:The state Legislature rejected legislation that would mandate pre-judgment interest in personal injury cases. The Council had argued that this would greatly increase pressure on defendants to settle, drive up the cost of individual liability cases, push up the cost of liability insurance, and increase the already excessive burden our tort system imposes on businesses, doctors, drivers and all other citizens.

A power-plant siting law:The Spitzer administration and state Legislators could not agree on a new law to expedite the siting of power plants in New York State. The former law, Article X of the state's Public Service Law, expired in 2002. There is widespread recognition of the need for a new law to address one of the driving factors in New York's second-highest-in-the-nation retail electricity costs: a supply that is inadequate to foster competition, ensure reliability, and keep prices down.

Elimination of business taxes on manufacturers:This proposal, advanced by the state Senate as part of its Upstate Now agenda, did not pass the Assembly.

Small business health-insurance tax credit:This proposal, which was also part of the Senate's Upstate Now agenda, did not win approval in the Assembly.

Under this year's budget:

•The Article 9-A corporate tax rate imposed on more than 50,000 businesses drops from 7.5 percent to 7.1 percent, effective this year.
• The primary tax rates on banks and insurance companies are also reduced from 7.5 to 7.1 percent.
• The general tax rate on an estimated 3,400 manufacturing corporations drops further, from 7.5 to 6.5 percent, effective for taxable years starting on or after January 31, 2007.
• Hundreds of manufacturing, securities and other firms that pay corporate tax under the state's alternative minimum tax will see that rate drop by 40 percent, from 2.5 percent of taxable income to 1.5 percent.

However, the Legislature accepted Governor Spitzer's proposal to require out-of-state companies that are related to New York corporations to file combined tax returns if the related companies have substantial intercorporate transactions. The Business Council had urged rejection of that provision, saying it would increase taxes on major employers and diminish New York's competitive position as a headquarters state.

And the new budget also raises taxes on some New York employers with real-estate investment trusts by phasing out, over four years, a deduction for dividends from "captive" REITS.

For more info »               Posted: July 16, 2007