Area business leaders’ comments sharp regarding state budget

After four months and eight “temporary fixes” to fiscal year 2010-2011”™s state budget, we asked our chambers of commerce and business leaders throughout the Hudson Valley their opinion of its ramifications. We offer opinions and welcome you to add your voice to theirs. Here is what some of your peers had to say:

Dan Sisto                                                          
President
Hospital Association of New York
Albany
“Well, it”™s a relief to have it over as a citizen … but what”™s changed? The way to shift costs.
I”™ve reached a level of disgust with the process, the repetitive simplistic nature of across the board cuts every year, from combative to cynical. How will the health system gain any kind of sanity in structure and financing when politics drives quarterly revamping of every process we put in place? It”™s another symptom of the breakdown of effective government. We have Washington ask us to switch over to electronic medical records and other high-tech investments, joint venturing, taking risks, improving efficiency. The state process is to call for those things and then make it impossible to happen but continually raise taxes and amplify by making cuts. We continue to stay out of step with the rest of the country when it comes to crafting any kind of meaningful health reform. Other than that, I like being a New Yorker!”

John D”™Ambrosio
President and CEO
Orange County Chamber of Commerce        
Montgomery
“The devils are in the details ”“ let”™s see the specifics. We need to put a priority on creating good jobs ”“ we haven”™t been doing that for several years. The smaller companies are the ones creating the jobs, but what incentive do we offer?
As long as taxes are going to continue to grow, it is going to be harder and harder to convince people to do business here. For some, we are absolutely the right place to be but that”™s not true for many. We are the laughing stock of the nation as a result of Albany”™s inability to work together. Do you run an organization? Would your board stand for this? Absolutely not.”

Rob Lunski
Executive Director
Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows
Hudson Valley Region
“Nobody likes this budget, but we”™ll have to live with it. Tough decisions had to be made, and no one likes to make them.
Gateway to Entrepreneurial Tomorrows is affected because funding has been cut back dramatically. Our program has helped create 137 new businesses since we began … and more than 75 percent of them survived the Great Recession. Nearly 40 percent of our applicants are displaced workers. How can we help rebuild our economy, which depends on and is driven by small business, if we are going to make it even more difficult for entrepreneurs to get the help they need to get started?”Â 

Ward Todd                                                         
President and CEO
Chamber of Commerce of Ulster County
Kingston
“We are extremely disappointed at the state”™s decision to eliminate the Empire Zone incentive program and replace it with the Excelsior Program. The benefits to new or expanding businesses are now going to be considerably less ”“ leaving the Hudson Valley and the entire state at a competitive disadvantage with other states.
The budget also includes a provision which forces companies that received more than $2 million in tax benefits to defer half of the benefits for three years. That”™s simply not fair to businesses that legitimately applied for and received those incentives. We need to encourage businesses to locate and grow in New York State and urge the legislature and the governor to stop adding roadblocks to our economic development efforts.”

Charles North
President and CEO
Dutchess County Regional Chamber of Commerce
Poughkeepsie
“The budget is something they whipped together, it”™s not friendly to business and we still don”™t have our economic development tools to work with. Even with the extra time it took, they could not come out with anything that is business-friendly. It took them long enough to do a lousy job.
My suggestion to elected officials: start working on next year”™s budget, hopefully they will get it ready for April 1 in 2011. If they are worrying about not being re-elected, it is something they will have to contend with. The budget”™s a travesty, just like the MTA tax.   We are being punished for living in New York State. We”™re known as the worst state in the Union to do business, and the elected officials have just reaffirmed that belief.”

Al Samuels                                               
President and CEO
Rockland Business Association
Pearl River
“Our new budget is all about $2 billion of new revenue measures for fiscal year 2011 and  more than doubling of that number in 2011 as the taxes, fees and deferrals take full effect. It doesn’t contain a cap on state spending, a property tax cap, no new taxes on business or an extension of the Empire Zone program; nor a rescission ”“ at best, a modification ”“ of the egregious MTA payroll tax.
Perhaps the worst part is the three-year deferral of certain business tax credits in which contractual obligations are being ignored. The subsidy for the small business threshold in the Mental Health Parity bill (Timothy”™s Law), championed by our late Sen. Tom Morahan, is being eliminated. 
By arbitrarily deferring the tax credits and by going back on its word to subsidize small businesses with fewer than 50 employees from the requirements of Timothy”™s Law, New York State raises doubt about trust and integrity that we simply cannot tolerate.”