Republican gubernatorial candidate Rob Astorino outlined his ticket”™s job reform plan Tuesday, saying if elected he would make the property tax cap permanent, put a hold on any new business regulations and look to allow natural gas drilling.
Astorino, the Westchester County executive, said on his first day in office he would sign a bill to hold a moratorium on any new regulations that might hinder economic development and job creation. He said he”™d also institute a review of the existing regulations to see which could be eliminated. The Scaffold Law, a worker safety law which business groups have long sought to repeal, is a regulation he said he would repeal.
“The Scaffold Law is typical of a hostile and anti-business regulatory environment in this state that”™s simply a job killer,” he said. The law increases the cost of any construction in the state, business advocates say, while supporters of the law say it is vital to protect the safety and rights of workers who may be injured on the job.
Astorino promised to keep state spending flat for four years and reform workers’ compensation and the State Environmental Quality Review Act, which he said are among state procedures inflating costs and making it difficult for companies to do business in New York. The candidate said he would favor legalizing hydraulic fracturing, a method of mining natural gas embedded in underground rock formations.
The method, under review by the state, has been touted as a way to revitalize economically depressed areas upstate, though it faces opposition from environmental groups and some politicians. Gov. Andrew Cuomo, a Democrat, has yet to take a public stance on whether he is in favor of fracking.
Astorino also supports the relicensing of Indian Point Energy Center, the nuclear power plant in Buchanan, and is in favor of building a new nuclear plant in Massena, N.Y. Cuomo has said he is in favor of the eventual decommissioning of Indian Point.
