“Raising hazardous waste fees by more than 20 percent is really a new tax that will harm many New York businesses, especially upstate manufacturers, which are already struggling with a difficult economy,” said Kenneth Adams, president and CEO of The Business Council of New York State, Inc.

In its memo in opposition to the bill The Business Council State: “Contrary to earlier commitments for no new taxes, this imposes in effect a new tax on manufacturing operations that result in the generation of hazardous wastes.

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In editorial on today’s Pressconnects.com they remind the next governor that his plan for economic and budgetary reform must be more than empty promises.

“So far the candidates for New York governor are talking the right talk. They’ve been paying attention to the dismal state of New York’s fiscal affairs and the shabby performance of the state Legislature over the past few years.

As a result, everyone’s talking change and reform, but the real key as the campaign unfolds between now and November is who has the most credible plan to follow through on that talk…

But talk is easy. Results are not. Current Gov. David Paterson knows that all too well. His tight-fisted approach to the 2010-11 budget has put that plan into a two-month lockdown in the state Legislature. His efforts to furlough state workers — not unlike a cost-saving method used by the private sector — has been opposed by union leaders and now is tied up in court.”

To read more click here.

Buffalo News Columnist Donn Esmonde expresses his concern that nothing will change in Albany with Andrew Cuomo as governor.

“Thursday, the Democrats nominated the man who, barring surprise or scandal, will be our next governor. Andrew Cuomo, as predictably as sunrise, touted “The New NY Agenda”— promising to bring truth, justice and what is left of the American Way to downtrodden voters.

Yawn.

I know we are supposed to be excited about a new start, a promise of change … blah, blah, blah. It would be easier to swallow if we had not heard it all before. Time has a way of crushing your illusions, particularly in this state.

I will be blunt. I believe that Albany is unreformable.”

To read more click here.

Cara Matthews reports on Pressconnects.com - “With the federal Race to the Top application due Tuesday, time is running out for lawmakers and the governor to agree on expanding charter schools and revamping teacher evaluations, changes needed to boost New York’s chances of winning up to $700 million.

Negotiations between the governor and Legislature continued Thursday evening on a bill that would improve New York’s application for Race to the Top money.

It was unclear whether the Assembly would have a bill to vote on Thursday evening. The Senate left for the day without taking up Race to the Top legislation and was scheduled to return Friday morning…

Gov. David Paterson said Thursday on WOR 710 AM in New York City that he would do everything he could to get a deal in time to send in the application. He said there have been “positive negotiations and the Assembly has concerns that we’re trying to address.”

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Mark Weiner of the Syracuse Post-Standard writes - “Reva Electric Car Co., the Bangalore, India-based electric car maker whose partners want to open an assembly plant in Central New York, agreed Wednesday to sell a controlling stake to a larger firm that could inject new capital into the company.

Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. will acquire 55.2 percent of Reva, and the company will be renamed Mahindra Reva Electric Vehicle Co., the companies announced.
Full financial terms of the deal were not disclosed. Mahindra & Mahindra manufactures compact trucks, and plans to begin the first exports of Indian made vehicles to the United States in December.”

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Brendan Scott of the New York Post reports - “he Assembly and the city struck a tentative accord last night to more than double the number of charter schools in the state from 200 to 460.

“A final draft has to be worked out,” said Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver, (D-Man). “I have every reason to believe that people will be on board.”
The state Senate and Gov. Paterson would have to sign off on any compromise. An Assembly vote was expected early today.”‘

To read more click here.

Danny Hakim and Nicholas Confessore of the New York Times provide insight into Cuomo’s plans to run on a platform that will put him in direct conflict with many of his fellow democrats and labor unions.

“Even as Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo was hailed as the Democratic Party’s nominee for governor at a convention that was largely a coronation, there was lingering unease in some party circles about his ascension, partly by Mr. Cuomo’s own design.

Mr. Cuomo is running against the state government, though it is controlled by his fellow Democrats, and he has laid out policies that put him on a collision course with some labor unions that have been reliable Democratic allies…

Minutes after his speech, Mr. Cuomo emerged at a luncheon at the hotel where delegates were gathered and began shaking hands, and fielding reporters’ questions about how he would handle next year’s budget. “I’m not going to raise taxes; I’m not going to have a wage increase for public employees,” he said. “You may have to cut. You’re going to have to cut where the money is. The money is in education. The money is in health care.”

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“For the Empire State’s heavily burdened taxpayers, Andrew Cuomo’s campaign policy agenda holds one major cause for celebration: Now all of the leading major party candidates for governor endorse a meaningful cap on property-tax levies,” writes E. J. McMahon of The Empire Center in The New York Post

“Cuomo, who formally becomes the Democratic gubernatorial nominee today, is actually proposing a slightly tighter cap than New Jersey’s Republican Gov. Chris Christie. Cuomo’s plan would limit the yearly increase in county, municipal, special-district and school-district property-tax levies to either inflation or 2 percent, whichever is less. Christie’s would mimic the 2½ percent limit successfully pioneered by Massachusetts.

The Cuomo cap, while it would allow an exception that in effect loosens the limit on county taxes, would be broader and tighter than the one originally proposed by Gov. Paterson. Among the Republican candidates, former Rep. Rick Lazio has proposed a 2½ percent cap, while Suffolk County Executive Steve Levy has called for capping school taxes at a lower level than Paterson favored. (A third Republican, Buffalo-area developer Carl Paladino, wants state and local tax cuts but hasn’t specifically advocated a property-tax cap.)

But, cap plans aside, the key question is this: Which of New York’s would-be governors is most likely to stand up to the powerful public-employee unions that will oppose any attempt to limit government taxes or spending?

Lazio and Levy would both mandate relief designed to address the root cause of high local taxes: labor costs. Both explicitly support repeal of the Triborough provision, which entitles public employees to automatic “step” raises even in the absence of a new contract. Levy can also cite an impressive track record of tough bargaining with the unions in Suffolk County. Cuomo offers a much less direct approach: He proposes an automatic repeal of spending mandates on local governments that the Legislature doesn’t specifically renew within two years.

Cuomo, the candidate who has been closest to organized labor throughout his career, is certainly striving hard to sound more fiscally conservative. But when it comes to details, his agenda (tax cap aside) is often cautious or even timid.

For example, when he promises to freeze wages for state workers, he’s really only stating the obvious: The state union contracts all expire between March and June of next year, and the next governor will be in no position to offer them a raise.

And his Medicaid proposals, at this stage, boil down to a vague promise to make the program more efficient — and to create a “massive pharmacy benefit management agency” to coordinate bulk drug purchases. A would-be New York governor really ought to think twice before advocating any new massive agencies.

Blowing up the clutter of outdated and duplicative boxes on the state organizational chart, as Cuomo also promises to do, is all well and good. But as he surely knows, this won’t save money unless the remaining agencies also employ many fewer employees — yet another area that invites union conflict.”

Read the full column.

On May 20, Kolmar Labs Group inked an agreement with Empire State Development Corp., Orange County and the Office of Community Renewal to stay in New York.

The Port Jervis employer has been in western Orange County for nearly seven decades, but was deciding to say farewell to New York until the ESDC stepped in to keep Kolmar on the New York side of the border.

In addition to $4.5 million in working capital for machinery and equipment upgrades from ESD for its Port Jervis facility, the company received $250,000 as a result of Assemblywoman Aileen Gunther’s and others’ political intervention, as well as $250,000 from the Office of Community Renewal.

The company announced will invest an additional $23 million in expanding its manufacturing and research and development operations in Port Jervis. It will also retain its 400 full-time employees.

The Business Council is opposed to legislation that would broaden the scope of prevailing wage requirements for pubic sector service employees to apply to energy utilities and create criminal penalties for violations.

This legislation alters existing labor law provisions that were created to establish wage requirements for public works-related building service employees, and would apply these public sector prevailing wage mandates to broad new categories of private sector employees including service work for energy utility companies, and other categories not contemplated by the drafters of the original legislation. In fact, service work for utility companies was explicitly and intentionally excluded from the original legislation in recognition that the extension of wage requirements to such workers would be inappropriate and result in increased cost to the ratepayers. Estimates from just two of the State’s utility companies are that the added costs to ratepayers would exceed $32 million annually.

To read more click here.