GuestView : A better, more innovative and more competitive state

To the Hudson Valley business community:

I would like to thank the members of the Hudson Valley business community for beginning a dialogue about the important economic issues facing our state. While traveling throughout the state during my campaign for governor, I had the opportunity to speak with employers and employees alike. Many share your concerns about the need to revitalize our state’s economy. I took office understanding that it was part of my responsibility to help create a business climate that attracts new development and enables existing businesses to stay. In my first three months in office, this work has begun in earnest.

The 2007-08 budget responds to many of the important issues you have raised in large part that the cost of doing business here is too high and that the cost of living is driving the state’s talented work force elsewhere. The budget takes the first steps toward lowering New York’s out-of-control spending growth. It cuts $1 billion in Medicaid spending and begins to fundamentally restructure our health-care system to make it more affordable, efficient and effective. It makes critical investments in education and small cities and begins to address our crisis of affordability by lowering property taxes for middle-class families.

In addition to instituting reforms through the state budget, we successfully passed landmark legislation to overhaul the state’s antiquated workers’ compensation laws. For decades, New York state’s workers’ compensation premiums have been among the highest in the nation, despite low weekly benefits for injured workers. Reforming the system increases benefits for injured workers for the first time in more than a decade, while reducing employer costs by 10 to 15 percent.

The acting superintendent of insurance, Eric Dinallo, will be working to ensure that these savings translate into reductions in insurance premiums, which will provide significant relief to New York’s business community, particularly small-business owners for whom such costs have been a major impediment.

To create a strong foundation for economic growth we must invest in the state’s infrastructure. Specifically, we must ensure that we have the transportation, energy, housing and broadband infrastructure to support future economic growth. My administration recognizes that a critical component to the continued growth of the Hudson Valley is the expansion of Stewart Airport. I am pleased that the Port Authority is moving forward with its plans to purchase the operating lease at Stewart. With timely investments and careful management, the airport can ease the burden on other airports and meet the needs of a growing population and region.

The initiatives mentioned above are an early glimpse at what will be a much broader economic revitalization agenda. For New York to thrive, we must encourage economic development that allows businesses to flourish. I look forward to working together with the Hudson Valley business community to ensure that businesses throughout the region and statewide have the necessary resources to compete in the global marketplace. It is my hope as governor to build a better, more innovative and more competitive New York state.