New York’s small businesses faced unrelenting challenges throughout 2022. With 40-year high inflation, supply chain disruptions, labor shortages, and rising energy prices, this has been a difficult year for Main Street. NFIB in New York has been the tireless “Voice of Small Business” in the halls of Albany and delivered much-needed tax relief and defeated countless policies that drive the costs of doing business even higher. NFIB’s New York advocacy team thanks all our members for taking the time to contact your lawmaker, speak to the media, submit letters to the editor, attend Small Business Day, and more! Your efforts make all the difference.
While NFIB delivered crucial victories in 2022, there is much more work to be done to improve New York State’s abysmal tax climate and reputation as one of the worst states to operate a business in. As NFIB looks ahead to 2023, here is a recap of NFIB’s efforts throughout the year:
The 2022 legislative session was especially busy, as the Senate and Assembly passed more than 1,000 bills in both chambers over the last 6 months. This is the highest number of bills to be passed by both houses since the mid-90s. While hundreds of these bills are local tax extensions or constituent-based bills, there are also hundreds of bills that NFIB tracks and engages in during the legislative process. NFIB secured several much-needed tax relief measures in this year’s state budget, including:
- Small Business Tax Relief: This provision increases the state tax exemption from 5 to 15 percent for certain pass-through entities (LLCs, LLPs, S-Corps), with a cap on business income eligibility.
- Accelerating the Middle-Class Tax Cut: This provision accelerates the middle-class tax cut which also provides relief to small businesses that pay their business taxes as pass-through entities via their personal income tax.
- Tax Credit for Small Business COVID-19-Related Expenses: This provision created a tax credit, of up to $25,0000, available to small businesses that incurred COVID-related capital costs from Jan. 1, 2021, through December 31, 2022.
- Gas Tax Holiday: This provision suspended the state’s motor fuel tax (8 cents) and sales tax (8 cents) from June 1, 2022 – to Dec. 31, 2022, saving 16 cents per gallon.
Overall, many of the bills that NFIB strongly opposed were defeated, helping to prevent increased taxes, higher energy prices, and overly burdensome and costly labor mandates. These bills included:
- Government-Run, Single Payer Healthcare: The legislation eliminates private health insurance and requires everyone to enroll in an Albany-run healthcare system. The system would be paid for through a new payroll tax, with 80% paid for by employers and 20% paid for by employees.
- All-Electric Buildings: This proposal would have mandated that all new residential, commercial, and mixed-use buildings be all-electric by the end of 2023, meaning no gas/oil hook-ups for heat or appliances. The bill did not contemplate how to help the grid absorb this influx in demand for electricity nor did it acknowledge the increased cost of building all-electric homes and facilities.
- LLC Disclosure: This bill would have required beneficial owners of LLCs to disclose personally identifiable information AND establish a searchable public database.
- Employee Lien: This bill would allow employees to file a lien against employers for simply a CLAIM of wage theft.
- Climate and Community Investment Act/Carbon Tax: The CCIA proposes a $55 per ton tax on pollutants, which would increase the gas tax by 55 cents per gallon and increase natural gas costs by 26%. CCIA would increase energy costs for small businesses that rely on affordable energy options for all aspects of their business operations, including transportation, shipping, heating and cooling, energy-intensive equipment, and electricity.
