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Wednesday, March 29, 2006 12:33 AM 

On 3/29/2006 Lee Drake, President and CEO of OS-Cubed, Inc. joined 40 other Rochester business representatives for Small Business Day in Albany.  Our annual pilgrimage to Albany included a visit to a number of Assembly and Democrat offices.

Unfortunately this visit was like all the others to Albany - the assembly and the senators were unencouraging that we would see significant progress on key issues affecting small businesses including Workman's Compensation reform, 240/241 Scaffolding law repeal, Medicaid cost control, and credits for health care provision for small businesses.

Senator Maziarz indicated that our best chance of significant progress may lay in the first quarter of the new Governor's term, and recommended placing our agenda before the candidates.  Visiting Susan John was - as usual - a waste of time and energy.  Her pro-union stance certainly makes one wonder just how much money she and her party get from the unions.  She doesn't even pretend to be interested in the genuine concerns that small businesses have with the current cost structure in NY driving industry out.

Truly the only person that my group visited that exhibited true passion and true excitement about solving the problems before the government was Joe Robach.  He talked positively about the coalition of RBA, city and county government coming together to demand that Rochester gets it's fair share of state aid.  And he believes that movement can be seen if we apply enough pressure in a joint and consolidated effort.

The chief counsel for the State Insurance Fund made a strong case for the governor's workman's comp reform package.

In all it was the usual long and sometimes frustrating trip to Albany.  It's important to be there and be heard but it sometimes feels like you're yelling into a well so deep you can't even hear the echos.

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