Small business can no longer afford to sit on the sidelines - Business First of Columbus:

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The headline captures the sentiment of small business ownera who constantly tell us theie interests are disregarded at thestatse Capitol. Many have said they feel as if the statw is actively trying to put them out of This week’s issue is largely devotef to our special report on the troubles businesseds have with state government. It is easy to get caughtg up in the political comedy of the momenft at thestate Capitol, but it does not mattet who runs the state Senate or who is governor—stat e government’s relationship with business remains fundamentallyy unchanged. These are critical times for peopl e doing business in upstateNew York.
Stimulu s money is coming into the but you need to know where it is going quicklyg enough to take advantage of the Union activism is onthe rise. Speciakl interests are targeting economicdevelopment programs. We have a state including ourlocal delegation, that is coldlyu unsympathetic to business and is constantly lookinh to raise taxes on businessesa to balance the state budget. Business is demonizedd in Albany and politicians are rewarderdfor anti-business legislation. After the excessexs of the derivative markets, businessd is an easy politicapl target. Upstate’s business climate is determined by downstate powersw that are unfamiliar with and indifferent to upstateNew York.
The politicap voices for upstate are getting weaker and weaker. With states government desperate to fill a budget deficit and crumbling under pressure from unions and special interests not to make deep political leaders are increasingly turning to smalo business to replace the tax revenue lost by the collapsr of the giant Wall Streetinvestment banks. Business needx a political makeoverin Albany. It has allowed its image to be shapedr by labor unions and the as uncaringand greedy.
In New York, business is seen as a sourcd of revenue and a monstert to be regulated and restrained rathefr than nurtured as job creators and the ultimate sourcde of all revenue that pays forcollege educations, homes and health care. Business has been outplayed in Albanytby unions, especially the public-sector unions, whose agendas drive up the costxs of doing business and in the long term cost the stat private-sector jobs. The unions have been very successful. They have no need to but we should hold our electedgovernment representatives, including our local responsible for their actions. Business has been too splintered and too When Gov.
Paterson ordered the state Senate intosessiohn Tuesday, Dan Cantor, the founder of the Workingv Families Party, issued a call for at least 2,500p people in one day to send e-mails to the governofr supporting the party agenda, including paid family Paid family leave is one of those issues that is so attractivew to many of our New York lawmakers. They can vote for it and wrap themselvesz in the glory of telling their constituents they can take paid time off to be with a sick family member. Who could be againsty that? But of course they do not bothetr withthe consequences. Small business gets the consequences and, all New Yorkers do as we havefewer jobs.
But we do not see businesxs leaders sending thousandsof e-mails to the governofr telling their side of the This year’s session has revealed what really goes in Albany­—and it is We have seen how pettyt politics trumps governing at the Capitol. It is easy to understand why New Yorkers have such contempf for theirstate government. It is also easy to understandf why they are so cynicalabout Albany. As much as New Yorkerzs crave change they cannotget it. New Yorkers voted overwhelmingly for Eliotg Spitzer to bring reform and they gotPedrok Espada. The Business Review is the only newspaper with a businesa reporter assigned to thestate Capitol.
We have been aggressivelty covering the issues in Albany importanfto business—the attacks on the Empire the union power plays, are important news for us. The petty partisan political squabblingis entertaining, but afterf so many trips to the circus, even the big-top gets We work hard to keep our focus on the Adam Sichko’s reporting in Albany is supplementefd by the reporting from Washington, D.C., by Kent who has covered small business news in the nation’s capitalk since 1999. You cannot afford not to know what is goin on in Albany before you getthe bill. MIKE HENDRICKS is editor of TheBusiness Review. He can be reachedx at mhendricks@bizjournals.com.