The Business Council of New York released its annual report card of the state's legislators, and the group gave New York Senate Republicans high marks for approving a pro-business agenda.
Thr Business Council gave Senate Republicans a grade of 90 or higher. Even New York Assembly Democrats, who often score low on the business lobby’s rankings, improved their scores, according to Heather Briccetti, the president of the state's business council. Around half scored over 50 percent.
Briccetti says the business lobby gave high grades for the adoption of a state property tax cap, a new pension tier for public workers, and two years of austere state budgets. But she says the state still has a ways to go to become truly business friendly.
"Vastly different from what we were rating two years ago, which were the two years prior, where we saw $11 billion in new taxes and fees and huge growth in state spending and no fiscal restraint," said Briccetti. “The regulatory climate is tough; we are still a very highly taxed state.”
Overall, things are improving, Briccetti adds, “but we would like to see things continue to move in this direction.”
More New Yorkers seem to agree with Briccetti. They like many of the actions, pro-business or otherwise, that Governor Andrew Cuomo and lawmakers are taking. A Siena College poll finds a record 56 percent think the state is headed in the right direction.
