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

Buffalo Niagara Partnership boosts outreach to minority businesses

By growthzone | June 13, 2023

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) —The Buffalo Niagara Partnership is expanding its outreach to minority-owned businesses.

The region’s largest business group has increased the number of participants in its Minority Business Initiative to 16, from five in last year’s inaugural edition of the program.

The Buffalo Niagara Partnership announces second cohort of Minority-Owned Business Initiative Program Expanded to Respond to Applicant Needs

By growthzone | June 1, 2023

The Buffalo Niagara Partnership’s (BNP’s) Minority Business Initiative (MBI) strives to eliminate the obstacles that have long hindered minority business ownership by providing minority-owned businesses access to BNP’s extensive resources and networks to build their business. The 2023 cohort was announced at today’s DEI Symposium and includes two tracks to better serve participant needs. The MBI Program is funded through generous underwriting of Bank of America, National Grid, and the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.

Another Voice: Proposed recycling reform would harm manufacturers

By growthzone | May 31, 2023

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) — New York lawmakers are rightfully looking to address the problem of plastic waste. One of Albany’s proposed solutions is an extended producer responsibility (EPR) bill called the Packaging Reduction and Recycling Infrastructure Act (S.4246/A.5322).

Note to Albany: Pushing workers over ‘benefits cliff’ makes no sense

By growthzone | May 24, 2023

BUFFALO, N.Y. (The Buffalo News) — If the moral imperative of making work pay doesn’t prompt compensation adequate for a decent life – and clearly it often doesn’t – maybe the impact on the economy of penalizing workers for bettering themselves will change some minds.