New York State

Republicans weaponize mom & pop

New York Senate GOP’s economic agenda takes aim at leftward-shifting Democrats

Main Street in Nyack New York

Main Street in Nyack New York John Arehart/Shutterstock

As the legislative session comes to a close, the state Senate and Assembly are struggling to bridge the divide between their priorities, particularly on economic issues. The state Senate passed a package of bills in early May, optimistically titled the 2018 Jobs and Opportunity Agenda, that included legislation to expand tax credits for small businesses and ease regulations. However, these bills have languished in the Assembly and may be more likely to live on as a political statement than as enacted policy.

In the press release announcing the passage of the bills, state Senate Majority Leader John Flanagan condemned Democrats for focusing more on politics than policymaking.

“While the governor and the Legislature’s Democrats race each other to the extreme left on issues that won’t improve the lives of everyday New Yorkers, the Senate Republican majority continues to focus on enacting measures that will create a more prosperous future for our residents and businesses,” Flanagan said.

Four of those bills specifically pertain to small business issues, including providing financial assistance for pollution prevention, having each agency designate a small business liaison, easing of regulatory fines for small businesses that are first-time offenders and extending the STAR property tax exemption to small businesses.

Democratic Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr., chairman of the Small Business Committee, and Republican state Sen. Phil Boyle, chairman of the state Senate Committee on Commerce, Economic Development and Small Business, both seem hopeful that the state Legislature will be able to come together on issues relating to small businesses.

“We’re open to discussion. We have five weeks left,” said Thiele, about working with his state Senate counterparts.

Thiele said bills related to funding for small businesses had already passed as part of the state budget, including a bill creating a task force to review online lending institutions. However, he was discouraged by the lack of progress on the state’s minority- and women-owned business enterprise program, which was extended by a year in the budget. However, the budget did not include any of the reforms suggested by the Assembly and the governor, such as implementing hiring goals for specific races and genders, due to opposition from the state Senate.

“The goals of our committee obviously are to continue to increase participation in the MWBE program, and I think that we would’ve liked to see more changes that fostered greater participation,” Thiele said.

Meanwhile, the state Senate proposed updating state MWBE contract requirements so that agencies would be required to contract with a number of MWBEs correlating to the percentage of MWBEs in a specific region.

“It’s an important program, it just needs some modifications,” said Boyle, who said he is now on a task force to study how to make MWBEs more efficient.

However, the two chairmen remain hopeful that they can find common ground on small business issues.

Boyle said that with the recent drama involving former state Attorney General Eric Schneiderman and choosing his successor, the state Legislature hadn’t been as focused on other issues. He also said he was “hopeful” that Gov. Andrew Cuomo would sign some of the Republican bills.

However, it is unlikely that many of the issues presented in the Republican agenda will pass, especially easing regulations and requirements for MWBEs. Boyle and the state Senate Republicans also want to end the Start-Up NY program, which provides tax breaks for companies that create jobs in partnership with local colleges. As the program is touted by the Cuomo administration as a success, that dream is unlikely to be fulfilled.

Boyle also raised concerns that the Democratic gubernatorial primary could push Democrats more to the left, especially the governor.

“The further left that certain candidates are pushed during the political season, it may affect their efforts to overly increase regulation, and support legislation that’s going to hurt small business,” Boyle said.


The jobs plans


The 2018 Jobs and Opportunity Agenda

Earlier this month, the Republican-controlled state Senate passed its 2018 Jobs and Opportunity Agenda, a package of 18 bills that represents the majority conference’s economic agenda. Several of these bills have Democratic sponsors in the Assembly and may garner the support needed to pass. But it’s unlikely that the package will be adopted in full by the Democratic-controlled Assembly, or signed by the governor. Nonetheless, it gives Republicans an opportunity to present an economic alternative to voters this fall.

Consensus on some small business bills

Some of the bills passed by the state Senate in the Jobs and Opportunity Agenda have bipartisan support in the Assembly, including a bill on extending property tax breaks to small businesses, a bill on reducing regulatory fines for small businesses, a bill to create liaisons for small businesses in state agencies and a bill to provide funding to small businesses to prevent pollution.

Differing priorities with MWBEs

The state Senate and Assembly have also presented different legislation on improving the state’s minority- and women-owned business enterprise program. Assembly Democrats and Gov. Andrew Cuomo attempted to reform the program in the state budget, but the measures were opposed by state Senate Republicans. The program was simply extended one year. Meanwhile, a bill in the Jobs and Opportunity Agenda would scale back state targets in areas with fewer qualified MWBEs, instead basing targets on the percentage of such firms in each region.

Supporting local businesses

There are a few bills with bipartisan support in the Assembly and state Senate supporting local small businesses. One bill, sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Ron Kim and co-sponsored by Democratic state Sen. Tony Avella and Republican state Sen. Elaine Phillips, would expand financing assistance eligibility to dry cleaners and nail salons. Another, sponsored by Democratic Assemblyman Fred Thiele Jr. and Republican state Sen. Kenneth P. LaValle, would require state agencies to hold roundtable meetings about seafood marketing with relevant stakeholders. Both of these bills have passed in the Senate and are in committee in the Assembly.

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.