A panel of experts tackled the question of what New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s administration will mean for business at a Business Review event on Thursday.

About 325 people came to the Glen Sanders Mansion in Scotia to hear the panelists weigh in on a range of issues.

The group covered topics including a proposed cap on property taxes, soaring pension costs, economic development and Cuomo’s upcoming budget, which he will release next week.

“We have to make inroads on reducing costs for businesses. If we don’t, the death spiral will continue,” said Brian McMahon, a panelist and executive director of the New York State Economic Development Council.

How those issues are resolved will determine whether taxes and other costs on businesses will increase, said Assemblyman George Amedore Jr. (R-Rotterdam). Amedore is also vice president of home-builder Amedore Homes Inc.

“We, the job creators in this state, are being put in the back of the bus. Matter of fact, we’re getting kicked off the bus,” Amedore said. “We can’t continue to be the personal ATM machines for state government.”

One of Cuomo’s top priorities is enacting a cap on property taxes, which are already 80 percent above the national average and climbing. Cuomo wants to limit annual increases to 2 percent, or inflation, whichever is lower.

Panelists said the cap is critical to laying the groundwork to address other issues—such as breaking the state’s habit of mandating programs for local governments to provide without giving them any money to do so.

“Above all, you need the cap. If you do the cap, you have a chance of getting significant mandate relief and a fundamental restructuring,” said E.J. McMahon, director of the conservative Empire Center for Public Policy, in Albany….

Read article here