By State Sen. Jim Tedisco

New York state needs a New Year’s resolution and stick to it to go on a diet from taxation, spending, borrowing, mandating and regulating to turn our state’s economy around and truly open the state for business.

Since 2010, more than 1 million people have left New York state—over 190,000 people in just the past year, according to the U.S. Census Bureau. New York ranks 48th in the nation for Tax Freedom Day, when people symbolically pay off all of their federal, state and local taxes and start taking home their paychecks to pay necessary things like mortgage, health care, tuition and food.

Much of the research shows that New York has one of the worst environments in the nation for the development and growth of small businesses and jobs. And recently, to add insult to injury, New York was picked as one of the worst places to retire.

Though we’ve taken some positive steps by passing the property tax cap to put a lid on out of control property tax increases, limiting the rate of Medicaid growth costs for local governments, and capping state spending to no more than 2 percent, there are still miles to go to keep New York working and open for business.

By Todd Shimkus

In 2018, the Saratoga County Chamber of Commerce will celebrate 100 years of leadership getting positive things done for the betterment of our community and our members.

Our Chamber’s first president was Joseph H. Clark, the head of the Clark Textile Co. He hosted the first Chamber annual dinner at Newman’s Lake House, on June 7, 1918. The dinner’s “toastmaster” was Charles C. Van Deusen, president of the Adirondack Trust Co.

In 1918, on the 11th hour, of the 11th day, of the 11th month, World War I came to an end. It was the year that Howard Cosell, Ted Williams, Nelson Mandela, and Paul Harvey, to name a few, were born. The president of the United States at the time was a Democrat, Woodrow Wilson.

The Chamber’s mission 100 years ago was simple: Foster trade and commerce; promote friendly cooperation between local businesses; and forward the interests of Saratoga as a health resort and a seat of learning. Today, this original mission remains at the core of our efforts.

We continue to help local companies to open doors and close deals at events like our annual B2B Expo and through ribbon cuttings where we celebrate a dream come true.

We still believe that being a healthy place to live is good for our economy as witnessed by our leadership of the #HealthySaratoga movement.

By Dennis Brobston

The 2018 economic outlook for Saratoga County and the greater region remains strong. It also marks Saratoga Economic Development Corp.’s 40th anniversary of boosting Saratoga County’s readiness for success.

Our community-led member network positions us close to market realities to set priorities. To build on our legacy of success and stay prepared for future opportunities, the need can be summed up in one word; capacity.

Talent, both a workforce incorporating needed technical skills, and an inspired culture of entrepreneurs, will boost Saratoga’s competitive standing. Building and infrastructure flexible enough to support earlier stage small businesses, as well as capital-intensive needs for mature companies, are critical assets. This combination of innovators supported by a prepared, modern workforce and appealing locations for them to be productive, enhances Saratoga’s competitive capacity.

Promoting Saratoga County, retaining, and growing jobs and wages are SEDC’s mission and 2017 was a productive year. Publicly reporting progress against economic development goals helps keep SEDC accountable for delivering tangible results. From 2014 through 2017, SEDC efforts have stimulated over $2.54 billion of new investment generating over 1,800 new and retained jobs and $48.7 million in added employee payroll. 2017 alone produced $30.3 million of new investment leading to 430 jobs. These jobs will add over $8.6 million of annual household income in area communities.

We realized job retention goals by supporting local small and mid-sized business expansions. SEDC helped homegrown manufacturer Greenfield Manufacturing, Inc. expand in Saratoga Springs even while being recruited nationally. SEDC supported one of the newest additions to the Saratoga business community, Arnoff Logistics, expand their Malta facility creating 20 new jobs.

BY PETE BARDUNIAS

Every year January prognostications touch on the same themes: workforce (we need more of it), collaboration (how to achieve it), corporate investment (how to attract it) and innovation (how to encourage it).

I’ll add another one: regulation (how to reduce it).

After seven years at the helm of the Capital Region’s third largest chamber (based on number of members), I am convinced that our business community has both the tools and desire to succeed, if we can get government out of the way and encourage a disruption in the pre-conceived notion of what it means to be successful in terms of workforce education and in economic development. The measurements we have been using to guide our efforts are, at least in some cases, flawed or incomplete.

For example, when the Saratoga County Prosperity Partnership’s Marty Vanags stood before the cameras in December to discuss the proposed Area 3 Halfmoon Industrial Complex, he was justifiably proud of the collaborative study effort that led to the announcement. I was excited to be standing alongside him as well as officials from the town of Halfmoon, volunteers and property owners from the community, and representatives of National Grid, which had partially financed the project.

By Mark Shaw

2018 will bring about the “everything” as a service.

What does that mean to us as business owners? It means that everything, and I do mean everything, technology wise for your business will become an app, a cloud, and a service.

In 2016, in an article, we wrote about the cloud coming in to its own for servers and applications. This meant as a business, you no longer needed to worry about energy sucking, dedicated-room needing, heavy-on-the-local maintenance hardware. It all went up to the cloud and became someone else’s problem. Email was the first to go.

Then in 2017, this same space covered the conversation of the desktops and laptops in to an operating expense model. This is where hardware was rented and not owned. You as a business owner no longer needed to have a basement or room full of old computer junk.

It also meant that everyone, on a regular basis, all at the same time, could receive new desktops, laptops and tablets. Gone were the days of rolling down the CEO’s laptop to the receptionist and the receptionist’s desktop down to maintenance. It became a truly global replacement of hardware. Everyone was delighted.