While New York state lawmakers helped to engineer several legislative victories for businesses in 2011, there is still significant work to be done, according to legal experts and business advocates.
Notably, the 2 percent tax cap enacted last summer has been widely cited as the most significant change for business owners and for companies looking to attract new talent to the state and as a signal that the business environment here might not be as gloomy as has historically been described.
“Gov. Cuomo”™s leadership and the bipartisan work with the Assembly and the Senate has brought New York back to having a functional government focused on developing a strong economic model for business and residents alike,” said William S. Null, managing partner of Cuddy and Feder L.L.P. in White Plains.
Null said that by fostering an ongoing dialogue between both parties, the Cuomo administration has brought about “meaningful pro-business legislation” such as the tax cap and the reductions in the MTA payroll tax rate for hundreds of thousands of businesses.
The tax cap represented the most important agenda item of the past year for the New York chapter of the National Federation of Independent Businesses, said Michael Durant, director.
Durant said the tax cap also forces lawmakers to now address regulatory issues and mandate spending that have left several municipalities struggling to stay under the cap.
“What makes it doubly significant is that I had always believed if you put the tax cap in place it would force the critical conversations that need to take place over regulatory relief and mandate relief,” he said.
However, the buck doesn”™t stop here, Durant said.
“You don”™t reverse a decade or longer of neglect with one good legislative session,” he said. “At the state level and the national level you”™re hearing a lot about the regulatory impediments for businesses … that have, in my opinion, directly led to a lot of the sluggishness for both New York and the national economy.”
Null said business people have expressed the most concern over the lack of action at the federal government level, which has led to an increase in uncertainty among business owners and consumers alike.
“Businesses need a degree of certainty in order to make decisions and plan for both their company”™s activities and their employees. Many of us had expected to know by now where the federal government was moving on the payroll tax issue.”
