The following is part of an editorial in today’s Buffalo News which states the many reason why The Business Council of New York State and the Buffalo Niagara Partnership must maintain their member-relationship with the University at Buffalo.

“Members of the Buffalo Center Chapter of United University Professions, a union representing academic and professional staff at the University at Buffalo, evidently are unable to see clearly out of their ivory towers.

In a referendum passed 191-172 last month, they called on UB to drop out of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership and the Business Council of New York State.

The university has done a lot for Buffalo, and Buffalo’s private sector leaders have done a lot for the university.

Over the years, the University at Buffalo Foundation, the nonprofit arm of UB that develops private sector support, has given tens of millions of dollars to the university.

The university benefits greatly through the various partnerships and alliances it participates in. Much of what impacts UB, good and bad, comes out of the state Capitol. Buffalo’s business leaders have traveled to Albany many times to lobby on UB’s behalf.

Pulling out of the partnership and business council, or becoming a second-class member not paying dues, would diminish the status of both groups and hurt their ability to work for UB in the private sector and Albany. You can’t have it both ways: ending membership while expecting the groups to continue working for UB.

The UB union is not only shortsighted, but is wrong in basing its stand on the belief that membership in the organizations means UB is supporting fundraising, lobbying and endorsements of political candidates. Political actions by the partnership come out of its political action committee. None of the university’s money has gone or will go into the PAC.

The university’s standing has been greatly enhanced by having its president, Satish K. Tripathi, serve as co-chairman of the Western New York Economic Development Council with developer Howard Zemsky. Their leadership won $100 million in state funds for the region, and now the council will supervise the $1 billion economic development bonanza offered by Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo. Tripathi now works closely with the most important person in the state. Instead of reducing ties with the community, the UUP should be putting its efforts into improving them.

The stronger the relationship between “town and gown,” the more both parties will benefit.

To read more from the Buffalo News click here.

According to an article in the Capital District Business Review:

“Business leaders in the Albany, New York market appear to be feeling better about the economy than their counterparts in Syracuse, Rochester and Buffalo, according to First Niagara Bank’s annual survey.

The overall Index of Upstate New York Business Leaders dropped slightly, 0.5 percent, from 98.4 last year to 97.9.

The Buffalo-based bank worked with the Siena Research Institute of Loudonville to survey business leaders across upstate New York during the last two months of 2011 and the first week of 2012. They took answers from 636 private companies with revenue of between $5 million and $150 million, of 190 were in the Albany market. First Niagara has 49 branches in the Albany area.”

To read more click here.

Check out the full survey here.

According to a release from the Governor’s office:

“Governor Andrew M. Cuomo today announced that Xerox Corporation will establish a call center in Webster that will create 500 new jobs over the next two years.

‘Xerox is a global leader that could have gone anywhere in the world to expand their business, but they chose New York because our state is rapidly becoming the place to be for businesses,’ Governor Cuomo said. ‘By forging successful public-private partnerships like we have with Xerox, we can leverage state resources to generate sustainable economic growth and long-term job creation.’

Utilizing $5 million in Excelsior Jobs Program tax credits and a $1 million Economic Development Fund grant from Empire State Development, the company will invest $4.3 million to renovate a portion of Building 200 on the Webster campus, as well as purchase IT systems and equipment to create a 23,000 square foot state-of-the-art call center space. The Monroe County Industrial Development Agency (COMIDA) has also approved a local tax abatement package totaling $271,040.

The plans call for the creation of 500 new jobs, including 350 jobs in 2012 and an additional 150 jobs by 2013. In addition to the 500 new jobs being created, the company will retain 70 existing employees at the project location. Renovation is expected to begin in February, with completion projected by the end of 3rd quarter 2012. Xerox expects to begin hiring employees in March. Positions will include call center agents and managers.

Empire State Development President, CEO & Commissioner Kenneth Adams said, ‘It is through Governor Cuomo’s efforts that home-grown companies, like Xerox, are choosing to stay here and grow here. This commitment to Xerox ensures that investment and jobs stay in the Greater Rochester region.’”

To read more click here.

According to a release from the Pollution Prevention Institute:

“Two Rochester-area agencies, five New York City-based agencies and a Long Island agency will receive this year’s grant awards. The organizations and projects they will be working on with funds from the grants are as follows:

• NCS Community Development Corporation, Rochester: Let’s Do Deconstruction Initiative Project
• Coalition to Prevent Lead Poisoning, Rochester: Healthy Home/Lead Awareness for Parents DVD
• Pratt Center for Community Development, Brooklyn: Retrofit NYC Outreach Training
• East Williamsburg Valley Industrial Development Corporation, Brooklyn: Clean Air for North Brooklyn
• Newtown Creek Alliance, Brooklyn: Green Infrastructure Outreach Initiative
• Green Home NYC, Manhattan: Green Buildings, Green Cities: Waste Prevention
• Center for Health, Environment and Justice, Manhattan: PVC-Free Purchasing for Pollution Prevention
• Citizens Campaign Fund for the Environment, Long Island: Long Island Water Protection Campaign

The New York State Pollution Prevention Institute is housed at Rochester Institute of Technology and provides state-wide, comprehensive and integrated programming in technology research, development and diffusion, training and education aimed at making New York state more sustainable for workers, the public, the environment and the economy. The institute was created in 2008 through a grant from the New York State Department of Environmental Conservation. Additional partners include Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, Clarkson University, State University of New York at Buffalo and New York’s 10 Regional Technology Development Centers.”

To read the entire release click here.

The following is a letter that was written to Kassata Edwards (of WRGB Channel 6 News), who covered The Business Council’s Legislators’ Reception, along with the protest outside Hotel Albany (formerly known as the Crowne Plaza Albany). The author is Pete Bardunias, President/CEO of the Chamber of Southern Saratoga County:

“Hello Ms. Edwards,

Thank you for the fair and balanced report on the protest at the Business Council event last night. Channel 6 did a good job of laying out the facts as you saw them for people to understand. I’d like to add a few things which may be helpful, although I in no way claim to speak for the Business Council of New York State or any other entity present last night.

I was an attendee at the event, the guy with the little round band aid on my face chatting as the camera pans the room in your video. I didn’t realize it at the time, but I walked in about an hour earlier with one of the protesters, who I approached because she was wearing a Business Council credential. The lady with the dark hair and small rimmed dark glasses. If you look at your video she is unpinning the badge from her sweater while she is chanting and then puts it in her pocket. Perhaps she is the one who let the people in through a back door, but she most assuredly came in the front, along with me.

What disappoints me the most is, as we made small talk in the elevator, she claimed to own a small business. If so, then it’s a shame she didn’t utilize the resources of the Chambers of Commerce who were present there, and I honestly wish I could sit down with her and clear up any misunderstandings as to what these organizations are all about. The Chamber of Southern Saratoga County, for example, has 950 members, 65% of which have less than 10 employees. We would gladly address her concerns just as we would any small business who becomes a member. The big issues mentioned in the parking lot by the protesters – fracking, health care, taxation, family issues, etc. are all very much on the minds of chamber executives and our members too. It’s a shame they were out there in the rain instead of inside engaging in civil discourse which is what the many attendees of that reception were doing. I did not attend the President’s event later in the evening, but rather went home to my family in Clifton Park.

BCNYS President/CEO Heather Briccetti is a fine executive who has worked hard and deserves the position to which she has been appointed. Again I won’t speak for the Business Council, but I am proud that my Chamber of Commerce supports businesses large and small, from Mom and Pop entrepreneurs (such as what this woman claimed to be) all the way to some of the largest companies on the planet. Southern Saratoga County is a place where all these various interests and factions come together, and work hard to make a difference in leading New York out of its economic doldrums. I am very proud to be part of this community at such an important time in our history.

Thank you for letting me share my thoughts in this email. Should I be able to offer any other assistance to you, please don’t hesitate to contact me, my information is below.”

Last night, The Business Council held its 2012 Legislators’ Reception at Hotel Albany (formerly known as the Crowne Plaza Albany). Heather Briccetti, President and CEO of The Business Council, spoke to the 700+ attendees (who included Business Council members, legislative leaders and guests from around the state) on the organization’s agenda for 2012. Priorities for the Business Council include:

• Supporting the Governor’s call for no new taxes, fees and assessments in the state budget;
• Imposing limits on new spending growth, and adopting additional fiscal reforms including a new pension tier;
• Instituting mandate relief for localities to allow them to manage their own spending levels under the real property tax cap;
• Finalizing regulations to allow the safe and timely development of the Marcellus Shale;
• Reforming the state’s SEQRA, permitting and other programs to provide predictable, workable time frames for the approval of new investment projects;
• Passing a constitutional amendment to allow casino gaming;
• Adopting broad reforms in the state’s business taxes to reduce compliance costs and make the state’s tax code more supportive of in-state investment and job creation;
• Promoting public/private partnerships and procurement innovations such as design build to promote, and get the most out of, new investment in public infrastructure;
• Reforming the state’s rigorous, expensive regulatory climate to eliminate unnecessary and inefficient compliance mandates;
• Opposing new group health coverage mandates, which drive up employer and employee costs and make group help plans increasingly unaffordable; and
• Reducing lawsuit costs, including adoption of long-needed reforms to the state’s so-called scaffolding law, and rejecting expansion of the state’s “Martin Act.”

We made great strides in 2011 by working together to improve the business climate in New York, and promoting private sector investment and job creation.

I look forward to partnering with Governor Cuomo, the Senate and Assembly and, most importantly, our members, for an even more successful – and job filled – 2012.

Kathryn Caggianelli of the Troy Record did an in-depth piece on new Business Council President and CEO Heather Briccetti:

“The characteristics that make a defense attorney successful are not unlike those that propel a lobbyist to victory while fighting for their cause, according to Heather Briccetti.

And she should know. A mother of three sons who resides in Brunswick, she has enjoyed a career championing the underdog.

Briccetti, an attorney, was recently named president and chief executive officer of The Business Council of New York State. She was acting-president for nine months prior to being selected to head up the organization, formerly led by Kenneth Adams. She joined the Business Council in 2007 as vice president of government affairs.

“I like doing defense work. I’m certainly not suggesting that there is anything criminal to defend with regard to businesses that are members of the Business Council,” she laughed. “I guess what I’m trying to say is that it takes the same personality to be a successful lobbyist.”

Briccetti, 46, was born in Tunisia to Peace Corps parents, who after completing their assignment in Africa, moved back to the U.S. and pursued careers as public school teachers in Syracuse. At the time, she was 2 years old.

She credits their humanitarianism and leanings toward liberal politics as at least part of the reason she is passionate about lobbying for the underdog, and ultimately the greater good.

After graduating from the State University of New York at Binghamton at the age of 19, Briccetti returned to Tunisia for a summer and discovered that the country, at the time, boasted an extraordinary educational system and opportunities for women that rivaled those available to men.”

To read more click here.

The following Business Council members made Fortune Magazine’s list: Wegmans, Chesapeake Energy, PricewaterhouseCoopers, Ernst & Young, American Express, General Mills, Deloitte, Microsoft and KPMG.

For the full list click here.

Samantha Maziarz Christmann of the Buffalo News writes:

“For the 15th consecutive year, Wegmans has ranked as one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work for.’ The Rochester-based grocer landed in the fourth spot this year, falling one place from number three.

“We don’t take it for granted,” said Theresa Jackson, Wegmans spokeswoman. “We are excited every year when we find out we’re on the list and we wait with bated breath to see where we land.”

After eight years in the top five, the public pressure is always on for Wegmans to remain at the top of the heap.”

To read more click here.

Larry Rulison writes in today’s business section of the Times Union - “If the Capital Region is going to become a major center for advanced manufacturing and renewable energy technologies, the workforce has to be trained even before college.

That’s the approach educators at Questar III’s Columbia-Greene Educational Center here in Hudson are taking with their students.

The school, part of the state’s BOCES system, provides hands-on training for some of the most sought out careers in the country even before the students graduate high school.

And these aren’t run-of-the-mill vocational courses, but high-level training in solar electricity, wind power, batteries, semiconductors and high-tech manufacturing and robotics. While some students go straight into industry, others move on to schools like Hudson Valley Community College and Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute in Troy.”

To read more click here.