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N.Y. STATE OF $HOCK FOR LOCAL BUSINESS
By KENNETH LOVETT
December 27, 2006 -- ALBANY - The cost of doing business in New York is a whopping $35.3 billion more than the national average, an alarming new study shows.

New York businesses are paying significantly more than their out-of-state counterparts in state and local taxes, as well as for health care, energy and workers' compensation, said the report, released yesterday by the state Business Council's Public Policy Institute.

"There's plenty of blame to go around," said Business Council spokesman Matthew McGuire.

"For nearly 40 years, we have had policies that have been implemented and championed by Democrats and Republicans in the Legislature and the executive branch."

The additional costs add up to an average $1,830 a year for every state resident or $5,015 for every private-sector job.

"Businesses regularly benchmark their cost of doing business against their competitors, because they know that if their costs are too high, they won't be in business much longer," the report said.

Taxes pose the greatest burden for New York's businesses. Previous studies have shown New Yorkers pay the highest combined state and property taxes in the nation.

New York businesses pay $8.1 billion more in property taxes, $14.4 billion more in income taxes and $2.8 billion more in corporate business taxes.

New York businesses also pay nearly $7 billion more in energy costs, $1.7 billion more in health care and $1.3 billion in additional workers' comp, compared with the national average.
kenneth.lovett@nypost.com

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Gubernatorial hopeful Faso tells chambers state economy must be priority Back to News   
September 07, 2006  
  
by The Business Review (Albany)
  
Republican John Faso said Thursday he would focus on a few major policy areas if elected governor and not try to be all things to all people.

Restoring economic competitiveness, school financing, health care and energy would attract much of his attention as governor, Faso told a breakfast jointly sponsored by the Chamber of Schenectady County and the Albany-Colonie Regional Chamber of Commerce. He spoke at the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia.

Upstate New Yorks economy must be improved if the state as a whole is going to move forward, Faso said.

"It's shocking what's happening to some of our cities upstate," he said.

Faso faces a probable election campaign against Democrat Eliot Spitzer, the states attorney general. Polls indicate that Spitzer will easily defeat Nassau County Executive Tom Suozzi in the Sept. 12 Democratic primary.

Faso, the former state Assembly Republican leader from Kinderhook, Columbia County, criticized Spitzer for the frequently aired campaign commercials in which Faso says the attorney general talks in "vague platitudes" to the background music of Judy Collins. It is not good enough just to tell voters to "trust me," Faso said, while the states economy struggles, businesses labor under burdens they would not face in other states, and spending in Albany escalates.

"I think the public is owed a transparent discussion of these issues" during the campaign, Faso said.

The Republican candidate said he would lower state income taxes by expanding from $40,000 to $80,000 the annual income that taxpayers can make before they are subject to the highest level of taxation, 6.85 percent.

He also said he would provide property tax relief through the STAR rebate program by imposing caps on local government spending increases -- hikes he said have prevented meaningful reductions since the STAR program was introduced by Gov. George Pataki in 1997.

Faso said he endorses the platform of Unshackle Upstate, a pro-economic development initiative started by business interests in the Buffalo and Rochester areas. They include workers' compensation reforms, changes to the Wicks Law governing public building projects, elimination of the strict liability standards in the state's "scaffolding law" and the promotion of policies that would make the state's manufacturing sector stronger.

Nanotechnology, biotechnology and other high-tech economic development initiatives are productive, but manufacturing remains a crucial segment of the economy, Faso said.

"I don't think we should just concede defeat on manufacturing," he said.

Faso also promised to put state government on a spending "diet." He noted that the 2006-07 state budget is 13 percent larger than last year's and said spending in Albany is outstripping the ability of taxpayers to afford it.

Faso accused Spitzer of making "billions of promises" during his campaign that would make tax increases and increased state debt inevitable.

  
Article Derived From: http://www.bizjournals.com/albany/stories/2006/09/04/daily25.html?t=printable