Skip to content

Back to Our Blog

In the News

Buffalo Next: For businesses, the bill is coming due for the pandemic surge in unemployment benefits

Blog Categories

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) — New York State owes $9.3 billion to the federal government for funds borrowed to cover the cost of unemployment claims that soared during the pandemic.

Now the bill from Uncle Sam is coming due. And small businesses worry they will get stuck with the tab, in the form of significant tax increases.

“No one is questioning how unprecedented all of this was,” said Grant Loomis, vice president of government affairs at the Buffalo Niagara Partnership. “But we have to remember it was not employers who created this unprecedented level of unemployment.”

Read more here.

Related Posts

Help still wanted: hiring dominates employers’ concerns

By growthzone | October 14, 2022

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) —Finding and keeping qualified talent is top of mind for employers in the Buffalo Niagara region. It once again the led the list of employers’ foremost concerns in a survey of Buffalo Niagara Partnership members.

With border restrictions eased, Canadians are returning to Western New York to shop

By growthzone | October 7, 2022

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) —
“ArriveCan being eliminated is big but in my opinion the random testing and vaccination requirements were an extreme deterrent for quick trips across the border,” said Dottie Gallagher, president and CEO of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership

With Canada lifting most travel restrictions, border communities breathe sigh of relief

By growthzone | September 27, 2022

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) —Dottie Gallagher, president of the Buffalo Niagara Partnership, said fears of random testing and possible quarantines in Ontario all worked to discourage significant aspects of the region’s integrated economy. She called the move “quite frankly, long overdue,” especially for those travelers discouraged to even try navigating requirements like ArriveCan.

Assessment serves as tool to benchmark and inform WNY’s D&I work 

By growthzone | July 15, 2022

(Buffalo, NY) The Buffalo Niagara Partnership (BNP) is inviting the region’s businesses to participate in an assessment to determine how far the Western New York (WNY) Community has progressed in their diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) practices since the BNP’s first assessment conducted in 2020.