NFIB/NY Announces Legislative Priorities for 2016

Date: January 06, 2016

The National
Federation of Independent Business (NFIB/NY), the state’s largest small
business organization, today released its legislative priorities for the
upcoming 2016 legislative session. NFIB/NY’s Blueprint to Strengthen New
York’s Small Businesses
calls on legislative leaders to consider the
role small business owners play in the community and support measures that will
improve the state’s business climate overall. The agenda also addresses several
initiatives that threaten the viability of small and independent businesses
across the state.
 
“Small
employers are frankly under siege in New York and need relief from the constant
flow of legislative proposals that further increase costs and competitive
barriers,” said Mike Durant, NFIB/NY State Director.  “From the endless
push to increase the minimum wage to the potential for new paid leave mandates,
small business owners enter 2016 with a complete lack of confidence that Albany
truly understands the impact public policy has on their viability.”
The agenda identifies several initiatives that endanger the
survival of small business in the state and urges lawmakers to:

  • Reject further calls to
    increase the minimum wage
  • Oppose new paid leave
    mandates
  • Say no to factory-style
    labor mandates on New York’s family farms
  • Maintain the current
    iteration of the property tax cap and avoid legislative “carve-outs”

NFIB/NY’s agenda also outlines top priorities to help
strengthen and protect small business as the engine of growth and backbone of
our communities. The group calls for lawmakers to:

  • Reduce personal income
    taxes and lower the corporate tax rate for small business
  • Support sensible tort
    reform, including reforming the archaic “scaffold law”
  • Reform the State
    Environmental Quality Review (SEQR) process
  • Fully audit New York’s
    economic development investment portfolio to ensure transparency in the
    process and accurate measures of success.

Durant says that the stakes have never been higher for
small business, and he warns against compromises and half measures like linking
an increase in minimum wage with tax cuts for business. “Small business needs a
net gain. Simply trying to mitigate the impact of harmful policies does nothing
to strengthen small business or this state’s economy.  More succinctly,
less bad doesn’t make a legislative deal good for small business.”
View NFIB/NY’s Legislative Agenda
 

Related Content: Small Business News | New York

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