06/26/2008
Senate Majority Leader Joe Bruno announces retirement; Skelos takes Senate reins
In a move that left the Capitol stunned, Senate Majority Leader Joseph L. Bruno informed colleagues of his intention to retire from the Senate during the final hours of this year's session.
Sen. Bruno has been a longstanding and stalwart friend of the business community and a supporter of the NFIB agenda.
The majority quickly coalesced around Sen. Dean Skelos of Nassau County as Bruno's successor, and he was elected majority leader on Tuesday evening after the regular session ended. Sen. Tom Libous of Binghamton was named deputy majority leader. Both Sens. Skelos and Libous are loyal friends of small business, and NFIB/New York looks forward to continuing to work with them in their new leadership roles.
We wish Sen. Bruno well in his retirement and thank him for his longstanding support of New York's business community throughout his more than three decades of public service.
NFIB again defeats paid family leave mandate
Small business scored a major victory by again stopping the proposed paid family leave mandate. NFIB led the fight to kill this proposal last year, with the Assembly passing the bill but the Senate standing with small business and declining to act on the bill. This year, neither house acted on the bill in the face of strong opposition from NFIB and others in the business community.
This win is particularly important because during negotiations on this legislation, the Assembly and governor modified the proposal considered last year to include job protection, with some maintaining that not only should businesses of any size be required to allow employees to take up to 12 weeks of paid family leave, but proposing a new requirement that employees be guaranteed the right to return to their job at the end of the leave. The initial weekly benefit rate was also proposed to be more than doubled.
The original proposal for the leave alone was totally unworkable for small business; adding job protection to the mix is beyond absurd. How, for instance, is a business with five employees supposed to handle the three-month absence of an employee, especially if they are at the same time precluded from replacing that employee?
One-size-fits-all mandates don't work for small business. And they are the wrong prescription for New York's already ailing economy, struggling under the weight of the nation's second highest cost of doing business. Thankfully, the Senate majority understands that, and pushed back hard on this proposal, maintaining that it would be very harmful for small business.
We thank the majority again for making that stand and defending the interests of New York's entrepreneurs.
You can bet that this issue will continue to be on the table in the future, and you can be just as sure that NFIB/New York will be ready to fight it to protect your business. So far, the score stands at NFIB two, paid family leave, zero.
End of session wrap-up
The Legislature ended its regular session this week, although whether a session that saw the resignation of a disgraced governor who fell from the highest of political heights and ended with the surprise retirement of one of Albany's key leaders can be called "regular" is debatable. Small business emerged from the session relatively unscathed (a victory in and of itself), with the worst bills for small business defeated, with some important victories and several remaining challenges.
We previously reported on the passage of legislation to repeal the 12-month, crowd-out provision for the state's "Healthy-NY" program -- a major win for small business. Action (or lack thereof) on other issues of interest to small business in the final days of the session included:
Union-backed IDA Prevailing Wage Proposal Stopped: Legislation that would have imposed costly requirements on projects funded by Industrial Development Agencies was stopped with the strong opposition of NFIB and other business organizations. Unfortunately, at the same time, the Legislature failed to extend other provisions of the law which give IDAs tools to support projects that promote economic development.
Wick's Law "Reform" Fix Stalls: The Legislature failed to act on a bill NFIB supported to correct the fundamentally flawed Wick's Law "reform" the Legislature enacted as part of the state budget, a measure that will make it all but impossible for small businesses and non-union firms to participate in public works projects. There is strong support throughout the business community for repeal of this anti-competitive and substantially unfair provision, and we will be continuing to beat the drum on this issue.
Bad Medical Malpractice Deal Derailed: An eleventh-hour plan to address medical malpractice -- mind you, not by tackling the underlying liability issues through substantive tort reform, but rather through cost-shifting -- was stopped. One proposal would have funded the bailout by increasing taxes on health insurance policies, a move that would have further increased small business health insurance costs. We strongly opposed this proposal and are pleased to report that it was shot down.
Late Movement on Bottle Tax Halted: NFIB engaged in some furious last minute lobbying as the proposal to expand New York's bottle deposit law took on new life during the final days of session, after again being rejected during budget negotiations. We made the case to senators that this proposal would be a costly and (literally) messy burden for businesses and consumers alike, and they listened.
Property Tax Cap: The session ended without action on a proposed property tax cap. There is wide anticipation that the Legislature will return at some point over the summer, and that the Senate, at least, might take up a property tax cap. We will be urging both houses of the Legislature to give this issue the hearing and up-or-down vote it deserves -- and will be joining with others in the business community to make that case. Stay tuned for more on this in the coming weeks.
Session is over: What's NFIB/New York doing for you now?
The Legislature's work may have ended, but NFIB's sure hasn't. With the end of session, we will be shifting gears looking ahead to a busy election season this fall. We are already hard at work on the 2008 Voting Record so you can see how your legislators voted on issues important to small business, and we will be making decisions soon on which legislators will earn our support for re-election and who we will seek to defeat in November.
We will be traveling the state meeting with members and supporting candidates who earn our endorsement, and will keep you informed as the governor acts on small business bills we supported that are now headed to his desk.
We will also have a round of Area Action Council meetings in the fall, where we will talk about the importance of this year's state legislative elections to small business and bring news on important health insurance developments for small business.
As always, we are available to you for any questions or concerns you might have, and hope that we will hear from you.
