Call-to-Action: "Mad as hell"

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Call-to-Action: "Mad as hell"

We recently have seen a dramatic push for new state and local legislation that hurts current businesses today, and makes our region far less competitive for new jobs and investment over the long run.  Indeed, it seems as though employers are being attacked from all sides - if it's not politically-motivated local apprenticeship laws, it's a new living wage stipulation tied to IDA incentives, or the Working Families Party's drive for mandatory health care provided by employers (the so-called "Walmart" Bill).

While the Partnership, with your help, has been advocating against these issues (and others!), a more general message obviously needs to be sent to our elected officials...

To state legislators: Rather than allow, or worse, propose, new burdensome regulations that may ultimately force more and more companies to leave our state, why not instead focus on the reforms laid out earlier this year in the Unshackle Upstate agenda?

The timing is perfect to weigh in on Workers Compensation and Labor Law legislation in Albany.  Passing legislation to limit Workers Comp payouts will save business owners millions.  Also, the smothering liability costs stemming from the Scaffold Law (Sec. 240/241 of the current NYS Labor Law) can be mitigated by instead adopting a comparative liability statute whereby fault is proportionately shared.

To Erie county legislators: There are 128 "ready-to-use" recommendations that came as a result of the Partnership's Erie County Stabilization Project. Imagine if you worked to implement them with the same vigor you are working on forcing through onerous, poorly-crafted, bad-for-business apprenticeship laws. Let?s fix our priorities!

At the state level, the time to scream is now. Two-thirds of the laws passed each year in the state are done at the very end of each legislative session. The Working Families Party is well-mobilized, holding an Albany rally in favor of mandatory health care this week, and is engaged in a statewide grassroots effort.  We must be ready to mobilize as well!

A good place to start is by visiting www.unshackleupstate.com today, and clicking on the "Contact Albany" button on the home page. The website makes it very easy to get involved and to send a message to our state elected officials. Also, I encourage you to call your state legislators and remind them that the business community is not only the heart of our economy, but a strong voting block, as well. If you need contact information about your state legislators, you can obtain it at http://nymap.elections.state.ny.us/nysboe/ (if link does not open, paste address into a new browser window).

In a volatile political environment, one thing drives elected officials - re-election.  If we hammer home the fact that, collectively, the business community is "mad as hell, and not going to take it anymore," we can use the fear of not being re-elected as a tool - and you can bet our opponents will!

P.S. The Business Council of NYS has put together a great piece that lays out what passage of the Walmart Bill will mean for your business. Read more here. If you?re not mad as hell yet, take a look!

P.P.S. At the Federal level, we can count a great victory as the Senate voted unanimously to stall the implementation of the Western Hemisphere Travel Initiative (WHTI) until June, 2009. This gives us time to work on an alternative to the proposed passport requirement. Kudos to Partnership members Howard Zemsky and Pat Whalen (as well as to staffers, especially Luke Rich) for their tireless efforts on this issue!


Andrew J. Rudnick
President & CEO