Comptroller: Pension Funds Can Be Social Change Engines

by Benjamin Sarlin, Special to the Sun

Comptroller William Thompson Jr. is defending the use of pension funds as an engine for social change.

“As public pension funds, we can have it all,” he said in prepared remarks for the keynote address at a Harvard Law School national conference on pensions. “We can meet the highest fiduciary standards while revitalizing communities, creating affordable housing, spurring economic development, and investing in clean technology and more.”

Square Feet – A Big New York City Movie Studio Is Getting Bigger

By Jane L. Levere

Kaufman Astoria Studios, one of New York City’s three largest movie studios, is moving ahead with a major expansion plan, nine years after it was announced.

The studio, in the Astoria section of Queens, will break ground this fall on a $20 million building, with an 18,000-square-foot soundstage and 22,000 square feet of support space, on a plot of land diagonally across 36th Street from its current building, which is between 34th and 35th Avenues.

Broad-Based Coalition Unites to Oppose Arbitrary Property Tax Cap

ALBANY, N.Y. June 10, 2008 — A broad-based coalition representing more than one million New Yorkers today criticized legislation that would allow Albany — under a proposed property tax cap — to take away the voice of voters; impose artificial limits on local school spending; and abandon its promise to ensure equity in the education funding formula.

The coalition acknowledged the need for property tax relief, but said an artificial cap — like the one endorsed by Gov. David Paterson — would harm education programs while dooming efforts to close the achievement gap. It said similar caps have failed in Massachusetts and other states because they do not address rising costs beyond the control of school districts, inevitably leading to cuts to education programs that serve children and other public services.

Union Nurses join forces for patient safety

Hundreds rally at Capitol urging safe staffing, end to mandatory overtime

Albany – Hundreds of nurses from five prominent nurses’ unions filled the plaza in front of the Capitol steps today calling for legislation that would ban mandatory overtime and ensure safe nurse staffing levels. Busloads of nurses from across the state including members of the New York State Public Employees Federation (PEF), the New York State Nurses Association (NYSNA), the Communications Workers of America (CWA), the New York State United Teachers (NYSUT), and the Nurse Alliance of 1199 SEIU United Healthcare Workers East wore brightly colored t-shirts, waved signs and blew whistles to make sure their voices were heard. Mandatory overtime is a major cause of the current nursing shortage nationwide. Every major nurses union in New York supports legislative bill S.6342 (Morahan)/A.1898 B (Gunther) to prohibit mandatory overtime.

Governor Paterson to push minority and women’s business

By Kathleen Lucadamo
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Gov. Paterson told hundreds of college graduates Saturday that he wants to encourage more minority-owned and women-owned businesses in the state.

In his commencement address at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, the governor said he would expand an executive order to make sure such businesses are fairly considered for state contracts.

“We are going to issue an executive order about the procurement with minority- and women-owned businesses – right here in the state of New York – for a contract for investment banking and for savings and bonds and insurance, and we are going to do it this week,” he said.

Paterson told the graduates more minority-owned businesses in Huntsville, Ala., than in New York made Black Enterprise magazine’s rankings.

“But there is good news: There’s a new sheriff in town,” he said to thunderous applause.

There is already a similar executive order covering state contracts with other fields, but the new measure would expand the measure to apply to banking, insurance and the sale of securities and bonds.

Health Care Pulse of NY SMALL BUSINESSES

They are PART OF THE SOLUTION

Read the complete Survey Report: Report

ALBANY, N.Y. (June 4, 2008) – A healthy majority of small businesses in New York believe that a public-private partnership is the best way to provide health insurance to their workers, according, to a new survey The Health Care Pulse of New York Small Business issued today (Wednesday) by BALCONY – The Business and Labor Coalition of New York, the American Cancer Society, AARP and the Small Business Majority.

At the same time, fully half of New York small businesses do not provide health insurance, and of those that do, a large number are cutting benefits or raising costs to employees to maintain some coverage.

Health Care Pulse of Small Businesses

Health Care Pulse of Small Businesses

released in Albany on June 4th at News Conference

(left to right)

Bill Ferris, AARP; Ron Deutsch, Microbiz NY; Lou Gordon, BALCONY; Bruce Ventimiglia, Co-Chair BALCONY;
Troy Oechsner, NYS Insurance Dept; Joseph Sano, OMCE; Eleni Delimpaltadaki, BALCONY;
and Peter Slocum, American Cancer Society.

Survey: Half of NY’s Small Businesses Don’t Provide Health Insurance

The Business Review (Albany)

More than 80 percent of small businesses in New York state believe that a public-private partnership is the best way to provide health insurance to their workers, according, to a new survey.

The survey, by BALCONY-The Business and Labor Coalition of New York; the American Cancer Society; AARP; and the Small Business Majority, a national advocacy group, found that half of the state’s small businesses–defined as those with fewer than 500 employees–do not provide health insurance. Of those that do, a large number are cutting benefits or increasing the costs paid by employees.

Of the 409 businesses surveyed in late April and early May, 81 percent said they favored a system jointly financed by business, employees and government. Nearly three-quarters of respondents favored giving businesses the option of paying into a statewide pool for employee insurance.

“Small businesses are facing a big problem, with many of them dropping and cutting back benefits because of rising costs of both insurance and pharmaceuticals, but they don’t want to abandon the struggle,” said Bruce Ventimiglia, co-chair of BALCONY and chairman of Saratoga Capital Management in Garden City. “The business owners tell us they want to be part of the solution.”

Read the Survey: Survey

New York Small Businesses Decry Health-Care Costs

A statewide survey released Wednesday confirmed what many small-business owners in New York already know: health-care benefits are costly.

The majority of the 400 businesses surveyed, which included nearly 60 on Long Island, acknowledge the advantage of offering health-care benefits but say the costs are prohibitive. Most of the businesses have fewer than 50 employees.

More than half of the respondents, 52 percent, said they don’t offer benefits because of costs. And 81 percent said the best way to make the benefits affordable is to share costs with employees and government.

Seventy percent of the businesses said offering benefits is important because they help attract good employees. And 60 percent said benefits are important because they improve employees’ health.

Four groups collaborated for the poll: AARP; the American Cancer Society; The Small Business Majority, a San Francisco-based advocacy group, and the Business and Labor Coalition of New York, or BALCONY, a statewide non-partisan group.

The sponsors hope the findings will spur lawmakers to help small businesses provide coverage for their employees.

Read the Survey: Survey

Small Businesses Support Statewide Pool

A new survey of New York small business owners says only 43% offered health coverage to employees, with 52% of those surveyed citing cost as the reason they didn’t provide the benefit. Among those that provided insurance, 40% paid more than $400 per employee each month.

The survey of 409 small businesses—more than half of them with revenue under $1 million—was conducted by Small Business Majority in partnership with BALCONY, AARP and the American Cancer Society. It was meant to help guide the state’s Partnership for Coverage effort.

Significantly, only 58% of the respondents were aware of the Healthy New York insurance program, designed to help small businesses provide insurance. Among businesses that didn’t offer coverage, 40% were unaware of Healthy New York. Slightly more than half of the respondents supported allowing individuals to buy coverage on a sliding scale from Family Health Plus, and allowing businesses to buy into FHP by paying the majority of employees’ premiums.

Some 41% opposed guaranteeing health coverage by enrolling all New Yorkers in a state-run public insurance plan. But most small business owners supported a statewide pool that could bargain down costs and provide affordable coverage to workers after their employers paid a fee to the pool.

Read the Survey: Survey