2026 Joint Budget Subcommittee on Commerce / Economic Dev. and Small Business - 03/18/2026

Senator thank you.

Adam Tenney will serve as the Recording Secretary for the Assembly. The following agencies will be discussed at the Economic Development Joint Conference Committee, Department of Economic Development, Urban Development Corporation, Division of Alcohol and Beverage Control, Office of Cannabis Management and the New York State Gaming Commission. We look forward to working with the Senate and the Executive on increasing vital funding for innovation hot spots and incubators, minority and women owned businesses, biomedical research, Centers of Excellence and Centers of Advanced Technology. We also look forward to discussing the inclusion of funding for teacher and school paraprofessional workforce development initiatives and funding for New York first grants to medical researchers.

I think you're next to open the floor.

Senator Borrello, thank you, Madam Chair. First of all, thank you for including me on this. You know, I'm a, in addition to being a New York State senator from the 57th Senate District in western New York, I'm also myself a small business owner. So I understand the issues. You know, small business is the backbone of New York's economy. We employ about 45% of the total workforce and make up 99% of the businesses in New York State. So New York State business is small business. And the best thing that we can do in this body is reduce our costs and burdens on our small businesses and then get out of the way. Business is best when it's free to do what it does best, and that's create economic development on its own. You know, the biggest challenge I hear every single day from my fellow business owners is increased costs. The cost of electricity, energy in general, the cost of all the burdensome regulations here. So while I appreciate the fact that we are going to do things here to hopefully, you know, give out some funding, the best thing we can do is remove those barriers. And that's what's important here. Of the 422,000 small businesses here in New York State, what I hear over and over again is that New York continues to have their boot on the necks of small businesses. And that's what we have to stop here. We have to stop restricting people's ability to generate income. We have to stop treating the folks that are actually paying the bills and providing the tax dollars as the enemy. And if New York State could spend its way into affordability, we should be the most affordable state in the nation because we spend more than any other state in the nation. And that's really the challenge here. The challenge here is how do we remove the barriers so New Yorkers can be successful, so that small business owners can thrive. And that's what's going to keep people from leaving this state and taking the jobs and their tax dollars with them. So with that, I'd like to also see if Senator Chan would be interested in making a comment, if that's okay with you, Madam Chair.

Thank you, Madam Chair. Thank you, Senator Borrello. So as we just heard from Senator Borrello, we are from the opposite corners of New York State, but the sentiments is the same. And we need to do what we can to help the small businesses stay open and reward the owners of these small businesses for their hard work. And these businesses, my district is small in size in comparison to Senator Borrello's, but the population is dense and these storefronts are closely packed together. And I visit them often, from buying a pack of candy to stopping by for a cup of coffee. And I speak to these store owners and the complaints are the same. The high utility costs, the electricity bills, the gas bills, the property tax bills, the cost of fines and regulations, permits. We need to do what we can to help them stay open. Because like Senator Borrello said, to build on that. They are the backbone of our economy. They're scared. It's scary. Their salaries and income, whether they're a small business owner or working class person, is just simply not catching up to the cost of living in New York City as well as the rest of the state. We have a golden opportunity here to insert provisions in the budget to work with the executive branch to help these businesses stay open and provide some great savings to the rate payers as well as the businesses, such as provide the tax holiday on the utilities for one year. I hope that we can come up with solutions to help our citizens, small business owners, everyone alike, have a more affordable fiscal year coming up. Thank you.

Thank you, Madam Chair. And I want to thank Chair Baskin and Chair Sturpee and my colleagues for what lies ahead in the coming weeks. Chair of the Racing, Gaming and Wagering Committee. Certainly, as we look into this budget in terms of the $5 billion industry that gaming brings to our state, but not only to help the OTBs and the horse racing industry and our local casinos, but more importantly, the addiction issue and in this budget, I think in the end, when the dust settles on this budget, you will find that we will have again a program and A pathway forward to helping more individuals not only with an addiction, but pre addiction. And I do look forward to working with my colleagues on that issue of addiction. So again, I thank you all for being here and I look forward to working with my colleagues and the governor's office. Thank you.

Okay. Assembly Woman

Okay, brain part.

It has been. Thank you. Chair Baskin. Chair Stirpee. As the Assembly's chair of the Racing and Wagering Committee, I join my colleague in wanting to make sure that as we go through this budget process, we are retain a focus on strengthening what is a $500 billion industry in New York that creates many, many jobs, that supports agriculture across the state and supports education in the state. As we work through this process, I, like my colleague, are focused on the issues of problem gambling and how do we support treatment and recovery. But more than that, how do we ensure that what is meant to be entertainment does not devolve into compulsive play and an addiction problem? We're also very concerned about the making sure that people have faith in the integrity of the sport, particularly in racing. And I will look forward to working with my colleagues to implement a stronger drug testing program, particularly in the harness racing industry. So I look forward to working with everybody as we go forward, hopefully with just a two week period to get this budget finished. Thank you.

Thank you Chairs for bringing us together today. My name is Marianne Buttinjon. I represent the 119th Assembly District and I'm also the chair of small business. And most definitely I own a small business, my husband and I, and clearly understand many of the hardships. But the answers that I receive are from the small business owners as they come to me to provide the insight of what they really need. I am a legislator, I do own a small business, but I don't know at all. So they are the ones that provide that insight. Two things that we have put in the one house is the small business subtraction modification that changes from 15 to 25%, as well as the small business hardship saving account which affords those owners when they're talking about recruitment and retention, that they are able to go into that account with tax deferred savings and that's up to a 10% contribution. So these are just two small efforts that were brought forward by small businesses to identify what needs to be done. Is there more to be done? Yes. As my colleagues state, our small businesses are the foundation of the economy and we need to work with them. So I ask that my colleagues provide insight as a chair so that we can continue to work to benefit them. Thank you.

Thank you.

Thank you very much. Chairman. My name is Matt Slater, representative of the 94th Assembly District here, representing the minority conference. And I do want to thank you again for letting me speak today. As we enter the final stages of the budget negotiations, our conference urges the importance of those discussions happening on a five way basis to ensure that the diverse perspectives of all New Yorkers are fully represented and valued. New York's businesses continue to battle an unparalleled challenge, many of them due to the economic burden New York State places on them. I think we heard that just a little earlier from some of my colleagues here on the daisy. Study after study reveals New York has one of the worst business climates in the nation because we have the nation's highest state and local tax burden and the most onerous regulations. While I appreciate the investments being proposed, especially in new technology development, as my colleague has just described, these investments, they fail to address the fundamental issues of the overtaxation and overregulation of New York's businesses. To combat regulatory abuse, our conference has championed legislation A5582 which would create the Division of Regulatory Review and Economic Growth. This would have the authority to halt proposed regulations and issue enforceable recommendations to remove burdensome and more importantly, outdated regulations. This is desperately needed since the elimination of the Governor's Office of Regulatory Reform, which occurred more than 10 years ago. In addition, New York's tax climate continues to push people and businesses to more friendly states. According to the 18th annual Upstate New York Business Leader Survey, 57% of New York CEOs say that if they had to do it all over again, they would locate their business someplace else other than New York. There have been billions of new taxes proposed to fund this year's budget, which will only shutter more businesses and send more jobs elsewhere. This failed approach is why we lead the nation in outmigration. Instead of raising taxes, we should be cutting them here in New York. We need to encourage individuals and businesses to stay in New York, and we need to do our best to show that New York is a place to start and grow businesses of all sizes. We also need to create a new generation of opportunity for every New Yorker, and that won't be accomplished with Albany's traditional tax and spend policies. I look forward to working with this group through an open and transparent process to enact an on time budget that exercises fiscal restraint and addresses the affordability crisis that's impacting every New Yorker. Thank you very much, Mr. Cashman. Thank you, Chairs. As one of the newest members of the Assembly, I'll keep my comments brief as this is my first exercise. But I will say this, I'm looking forward to working with my colleagues in the Senate Chamber as well as the Assembly Chamber across the aisle to make sure that we're punching above our weight for small businesses in the north country. One of the things that I'm excited about is the continued investment in the Cornell center for Excellence for Food Agriculture. As a region that is about the size of Rhode island and very rural, our farms and our small businesses are certainly wedded together and we have much work to do. So I'm looking forward to the time ahead.

All right, thank you. Assemblymember Bendette.

Thank you.

Thank you, Chair. Happy to be here. I am excited about a lot of the proposals in our budget for economic development, especially we know tourism. Specifically for me, in the Hudson Valley, tourism is a major economic driver. And we again invest in our tourism matching grants program with an increase of a million dollars. This is a lifeline for our counties to make sure that we are bringing in and attracting new people to our. So it's a great investment that we move forward. We've also created or proposed to create in our budget a restaurant tax credit for if they donate meals. Many of them are doing it already, but doing it for free. If they donate meals, that would be excess food. That would be food that would just end up in a landfill. If they donate that to community partners, they're able to collect a tax incentive up to $10,000. This is a great way to help our small business, small restaurants, and also make sure that our neighbors who are in need of food have good, delicious, locally cooked meals on their plates. We also propose to double the farm food donation tax credit, which is a similar program that encourages our farms to donate food to food banks and food pantries or to community organizations, and they're able to write some of that off. We want to double that to make it even more enticing. And we also have in our proposed budget an incentive to make it easier for residential folks to get heat pumps and to transfer, be able to retrofit their homes or get new energy systems. Specifically, as it pertains to heat pumps, we know that that is cost savings for families, but we also want to make sure that the way to do it is affordable, too. And so this would be a big step forward in helping people transition to clean energy. I'm excited about the conversations going forward, and I thank you very much for the time.