MACNY And The End Of The NYS Legislative Session
Randy Wolken, President & CEO

MACNY seeks to educate legislators and the Administration on where our members stand concerning critical bills throughout the year. We are entering the final week of the NYS Legislative Session, and some important pieces of legislation are pending. We need your help in sending a strong message on how you feel about critical items. I want to highlight two that we could use your help on.

MACNY supports A.10202 (Stirpe), which would create an amnesty program for employer contributions to the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund (UITF). This legislation would establish an amnesty program for employer contributions to the UITF. The proposal serves as a strategic opportunity to reduce unemployment insurance account receivables, increase UITF revenue, and provide interest relief to employers at a much-needed time. It also would encourage payment of monies into the UITF while making an allowance for employer fiscal constraints during the COVID-19 pandemic while helping the State’s overall economic recovery. This week, the Assembly passed this bill. Please join us in encouraging support for A.10202 (Stirpe) in the Senate by clicking here.

The Manufacturers Association opposes (S.5474 (Rivera) /A.6058 (Gottfried), which would create a government-run, single-payer health care system to replace New York’s current system of health coverage. Today, more than 95% of New Yorkers have health care through a combination of private, employer-sponsored, and government-supported plans. Although MACNY supports ways to support the 5% that do not have coverage, this approach is hugely expensive and likely threatens manufacturers and tech companies in New York State.

The single-payer system would be financed by a mandatory new payroll tax on both employers and employees and new taxes on other income such as interest and capital gains. Such tax increases would be significant. An independent study conducted by the RAND Corporation found that the legislation would require at least $210 Billion in new taxes when fully implemented. In addition, RAND did not include the cost of long-term care benefits, which requires an additional $40 billion in taxes. This is three times more than what New York State currently collects to pay for everything from schools to roads and bridges.

Furthermore, under this legislation, New Yorkers would not have a choice in their health care coverage; the only option available would be the government-run, single-payer system. A single-payer system’s direct and indirect consequences would be the loss of hospital revenues and healthcare jobs and the real risk of manufacturing companies being forced to move operations to another state. Please join us in opposing S.5474 (Rivera) /A.6058 (Gottfried) by clicking here.

MACNY has been very active in advocating for a pro-manufacturing agenda during this year’s Legislative Session. With your enthusiastic support, we have become the leading voice for manufacturing in the State. Together we can keep manufacturing strong and growing here in New York State. To view more MACNY legislative memos and testimony from this year, please visit macny.org/advocacy.