Yesterday NYS applied for a wavier from the federal government asking to reinvest $10 billion of savings created by Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s Medicaid Redesign Teamn into the state’s health care infrastructure. The goal would be to use the savings to update and modernize the physical and organizational health care infrastructure. It remains to be seen what future savings would be created, but clearly the cost of health care is astronomical so any attempt to create savings to be passed on to those paying for health care plans would be beneficial to business owners.
A new 60-megawatt ReEnergy plant has been proposed by Cuomo to provide power at Ft. Drum. While Article X has been a highly debated subject in the North Country, this project will not need to go through the new Article X permitting process because the coal plant already had the necessary permits to operate. Gov. Cuomo again expressed his opinion about Article X in this quote: “Unless we want to go back to candles, we need energy…The Article X law is, I believe, an intelligent balance between local input, but still a process that can be done and can be done expeditiously.” NFIB was a strong supporter of Article X and was pleased with its passage in 2011.
Gov. Cuomo signed a piece of legislation into law last week which will provide NY craft brewers with greater ability to market and to distribute their brews by allowing them to sever contracts and switch distributors. The craft brew industry is continuing to quickly grow in NYS but the industry as a whole was greatly divided on this legislation. It is unknown whether many craft brewers will attempt to end contracts or which beers consumer will see more or less of on the shelves as a result. The legislation goes into effect in 2013.
