Attorneys say fracking could happen this year

In this morning’s Buffalo Business First, reporter David Bertola writes that the Marcellus Shale “could be drilled in New York State by year-end.

Click here to read his story

Heather Briccetti at Global Foundries today

Business Council President and CEO Appearing as Panelist During Manufacturing Symposium

Heather Briccetti will be among the panelists discussing U.S. Advanced Manufacturing. They will discussing the future of innovation, jobs and manufacturing. Her appearance comes two weeks after the Public Policy Institute, the research arm of The Business Council, released an in-depth study on the challenges in attracting and retaining private sector jobs in New York’ lucrative bioscience center.

The event is taking place at 10:00 a.m. at Hudson Valley Community College, NYSERDA’s Saratoga Tech and Energy Park on Hermes Road, Malta.

Child Safe Products Act is unnecessary legislation

This letter to the editor of The Buffalo News written by Heather Briccetti, president and CEO of The Business Council, and Stephen Rosario, Executive Director, New York State Chemical Alliance, was published this week:

The Buffalo News editorial board recently missed the mark by urging the State Legislature to pass a flawed, non-science-based bill to regulate chemicals in children’s products.

It’s important to consider that the chemical manufacturing industry spends hundreds of millions of dollars annually in testing and research. In addition, the federal government has a regulatory safety net comprised of more than a dozen laws that govern the use and manufacture of chemicals.

Federal regulators have used this authority to impose restrictions, and have instituted significant reporting, testing and regulatory requirements on chemical manufacturers and processors.

Legislation such as the so-called Child Safe Products Act would ignore the federal role in ensuring the safety of products distributed nationally. Instead the bill burdens New Yorkers and ill-equipped regulators with having to process reams of data without enough toxicologists to determine actual harm posed by trace elements of chemicals in children’s products. In reality, chemicals are essential to the efficacy of 96 percent of all manufactured products.

Where we do agree, however, is that the Toxic Substances Control Act needs modernization. We need an effective, science-based chemical regulatory program that will provide state and federal lawmakers, and consumers across New York, confidence in the safety of products for their intended use.

The time has come to consolidate governments

Todd Tranum the president and CEO of the Chautauqua County Chamber of Commerce writes – “Chautauqua County has 27 towns, 15 villages, 2 cities and 18 school districts. And at 12.1-percent, New York State has the second highest state and local tax burden as a percent of income of any state in the nation, second only to New Jersey (Tax Foundation Special Report, 2011). There must be a correlation.

Our population is just over 134,000 – down nearly 5,000 in the past decade and down 10,000 since the 1960 census. Over the course of fifty years there have been substantial changes in Chautauqua County – but no changes in the layers of government. The reality is that we are serving fewer people with the same taxing entities.

We have all the assets right here in Chautauqua County to have a thriving economy. Look around at the diversity within our economy and take a look at the natural beauty that surrounds us. We have strong educational resources. And we have great people. Let’s recognize that we cannot control a whole lot at the State level. But we do have things right here in our corner of the State that we can control. What holds us back is that we are not competitive as a region. Our competitiveness is being undermined in large part by our tax structure.

Study after study has shown that reducing layers of government creates efficiencies and paves the way to reduce taxes. Reducing taxes will put us on the path to being a region that is competitive and positioned for economic growth. We must recognize that we are failing ourselves by allowing some of our elected officials to fail us. If we want change we have to demand it. If we want change we have to be willing to let it happen in our “back yard.”

This past week, local government officials came together for a meeting with state officials on the potential for governmental consolidation. County Executive Greg Edwards, who pulled this meeting together, called it “invaluable.” We commend him for his efforts on this crucial issue and look forward to additional steps to create governmental efficiencies through shared services and consolidations. We also commend County Legislator Lori Cornell who is working to pull together a committee with legislative and community representation to form a strategy around consolidation and governmental efficiency.”

To read more click here.

Retailers brace for more cross-border shopping pain

A Study Shows that Canadians’ Purchases in the U.S. Are Higher Than Official Data State, and With New Duty-Free Rules Coming, They’re About to Skyrocket

Canadians are spending far more on goods in the U.S. than federal data suggest, raising the stakes for domestic retailers trying to find ways to draw customers back into their stores.

As much as 8 to 10 percent of consumer spending on a raft of products is flowing to retailers outside the border, according to estimates in a report being released today by BMO Nesbitt Burns. That compares to Statistics Canada data that say 4 percent of retail spending is shifting outside the country.

What is more, the situation for domestic retailers is bound to get worse in the coming months: Cross border-shopping could hit a two-decade high as early as the summer, fueled by a still-high Canadian dollar and new duty-free rules that raise the limits on what people can bring back home, BMO warns.

“The steady drain of Canadian shoppers heading south is weighing on retail sales in this country,” Douglas Porter, deputy chief economist at BMO, said in his study titled “Cross-border shopping: here comes the flood.”

Click here to read more

Lessons from a costly LIRR tunnel

In an Newsday op-ed E.J McMahon, senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute’s Empire Center for New York Policy, wrote of the scandal surrounding the Long Island Rail Road:

“Federal prosecutors suggested this week that a “culture of fraud” has afflicted the Long Island Rail Road. They were referring to alleged phony disability claims by LIRR employees — but the phrase could just as well describe the chronic lowballing of past cost estimates for the LIRR’s East Side Access connection to Grand Central Terminal.”

Click here to read the op-ed

GAO: Small businesses say tax credit isn’t worth the effort

Kyle Cheney writes on Plolitico.com – “The Obama administration wildly missed the mark when it estimated that up to 4 million small businesses would take advantage of a health care premium tax credit created in the Affordable Care Act, according to a GAO report released Monday.

Just 170,300 businesses applied for the credit in 2010, and most of those didn’t seek the maximum amount allowed, the GAO found, in part because most small employers don’t offer health insurance.

But another factor was that the credit was too small and the criteria too complex to lure small businesses to apply, according to tax preparers, insurance brokers and company officials who met with GAO.

“While some small employers could be eligible for the credit if they began to offer health insurance, small business group representatives and discussion group participants told us that the credit may not offset costs enough to justify a new outlay for health insurance premiums,” according to the report.

Republicans pounced on the news to paint the ACA as an unworkable and confusing thicket of regulation.

“The failure of these small business tax credits goes to the heart of what’s wrong with ObamaCare:  it’s confusing, expensive, and burdensome for the families and businesses that have to comply with it,” U.S. Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said in a statement. “It’s no surprise that the very part of the law that the White House said would help small businesses is, in fact, too difficult and complex for small businesses to take advantage of — and that’s before the worst parts of the law for America’s job creators come into effect.”

In April 2010, the White House trumpeted estimates by Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers that found up to 4 million small businesses would be eligible to take advantage of the tax credit.

The credit, which became available immediately upon the law’s passage in 2010, offers to support up to 35 percent of small businesses’ premiums to provide health care to workers. That support is due to rise to 50 percent in 2014. Obama administration officials said at the time they expected the provision to save up to $40 billion for small businesses by 2019.

To be eligible for the credit, employers are required to employ fewer than 25 full-time equivalent workers in the tax year they apply, pay average wages of less than $50,000 a year, and pay at least 50 percent of their employees’ premiums.

To read and comment online:
https://www.politicopro.com/go/?id=11604

DEC establishing self-auditing program

Sarah Crean of Gotham Gazette writes of the Department of Environmental Conservation’s proposed policy which would allow industries to self-audit pollution-generating activities. Crean writes: “Industries that use pesticides, treat wastewater and store hazardous chemicals could have penalties for breaking pollution laws reduced or waived if they agree to self-report violations under a policy being considered by New York’s leading environmental regulator.

Any entity that enters into an agreement with the state Department of Environmental Conservation to self-audit would also “not be prioritized for inspection during the audit period,” stated a draft of the proposed policy obtained by the Gotham Gazette. “

Darren Suarez, the government affairs director for The Business Council, said self-audit agreements could be beneficial to both the companies themselves and to “the goal of reducing degradation to the environment.”

“A self-audit helps to identify areas where an institution may not be handling materials as well as they would want to,” he said, and later added: “If they can come into compliance, that’s the big incentive.”

DEC Executive Deputy Commissioner Marc Gerstman said the goal of the proposed policy was to promote compliance with environmental laws.

“Nobody is being given a free ride or a ticket to pollute,” he said. Instead, the policy encourages companies to come forward when something goes awry. “If a company has a violation that they want to disclose, [they] have some comfort level that we will not impose penalties.”

DEC spokeswoman Emily DeSantis said the program would encourage “comprehensive company-wide audits and best management practices, designed to identify and correct violations without fear of significant penalties.”

“In the end, companies and municipalities that have strong systems in place to ensure environmental compliance will prevent violations down the line,” she said.

Click here to read a DEC draft of the proposal

A grey lady correction on minimum wage

This comes to us from Tom Hoefer of NY Torch (Empire Center for New York State Policy):

The New York Times has agreed to print a correction of this article about the minimum wage issue, which includes inaccurate information implicitly attributed to Empire Center senior fellow Russell Sykes.

Here’s the final paragraph from the original article, with the offending passage in boldface:

The last statement was not only never made by Rus – it is also inaccurate regardless of its attribution. In fact, the hypothetical family in question would only lose about $230 of its EITC benefit, and would not become ineligible as the article states.

Rus’ has written a thorough overview of why the EITC is a more practical and targeted solution to low wages and poverty than a minimum wage increase.  The Empire Center also recently issued “Making Work Pay in New York,” his Policy Briefing paper on the EITC.