Home > NEWS > Email from the President > Partnership Political Involvement

State budget exemplifies need for political action
July 6, 2010

The Partnership recently scheduled a fundraiser for Jack Quinn III (due to the state legislature being stuck in Albany working on the overdue budget, we postponed it – stay tuned for a new date and time). In response to our invitations, I received a few e-mails from people wondering why we’ve set such a political objective so publicly this year. Particularly given the events of the past week in Albany, today’s e-mail can shed some clear light on that.

Below is a list of all of the anti-business initiatives and pieces of legislation that we’ve been fighting merely in the past few weeks – almost exclusively being pushed by New York City interests. By no means would I expect you to be able to relate to them all, but rest assured every one is harmful to private sector investment and job creation throughout the state, and particularly in Upstate New York:

• No extension of the Power for Jobs program, which expired on June 2
• Cutting of the Empire Zone program (while increasing the NYC-based film tax credit)
• The “Dirty Dozen,” 12 job-killing bills that would severely impede the state’s economic recovery
• Deferral of 50% of 33 different business tax credits (that have already been earned and are under contract) until 2013 – including the Brownfields Tax Credit and the Historic Rehab Tax Credit for which the Partnership successfully lobbied for passage
• Counting the state prison population as being residents of where they lived prior to incarceration, as opposed to the current practice of counting them where they’re locked up (higher population in NYC would further diminish Upstate's representation)
• The Hoyt/Thompson “IDA reform” bill
• The “service worker prevailing wage” bill
• Unemployment Insurance bill
• Silver/Sampson Campaign Finance Bill to restrict corporations’ political spending without placing similar restrictions on labor unions
• The “telecom service provider merger” bill – would stifle new telecommunications technology (including statewide broadband) by adding new costs and regulation to merger opportunities
• The “Savino call center” bill – would further raise utility costs
• The “greenhouse gas emissions” bill – would impose far-reaching restrictions on greenhouse emissions that will put NY at a competitive disadvantage with other states engaged in the federal program
• Creation of a NY Solar-REC program – would lock energy distribution utilities into a solar purchasing mandate with contracts running as late as 2039 (projected cost of up to $30 billion)
• The “workplace bullying bill” which would expand an employee's right to file suit after termination

How can this be?! I refer you to our infamous maps: