New York is losing its affordability. Rents are out of control.

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning. Well, it’s after Labor Day. What’s going on in our city or state with us today? Is Paul Zuber and he’s the executive vice president of the Business Council of New York State and he represents thousands, I think three thousand. Paul Zuber, how many businesses do you guys represent?

0:25 Speaker 2 We represent thirty two hundred businesses throughout the state, both major fortune five hundred companies to the smallest of small businesses. So we run the gamut from New York City all the way to Buffalo.

0:39 Speaker 1 That’s great. Now New York City, New York State is losing business. You know, you got the problem with the migrant crisis where it’s increasing. I understand the number from the Commissioner was anywhere from fifty to seventy five percent of arrests in New York City a migrants. I mean, we are in trouble. You know, people are leaving. Give

1:06 us your interpretation. Is there going to be any common sense in the Assembly or the State Senate’s.

1:15 Speaker 2 That’s a real that’s a real good question, John, And I think that I’m hopeful that there is, But you know, I think the problem that we have in the state and the city is we have too many politicians who will talk out of their side of the mouth by saying that affordability is important to them, and they’ll talk

1:37 about affordability, they’ll talk about the need to raise wages or talk about all of these things. But at the other end, they’re passing legislation that are doing things that deprive New Yorkers of creating a state that’s affordable. You know, I think there’s two prominent examples right out there in New York City. They have this bill that is going

2:03 to decimate the hotel industry, and the hotel industry has said that it’s going to it’s going to hurt us, right, and we already know that the hotels are being booked because of the migrant situation. A lot of hotels are taking into migrants because they have, you know, a revenue source that’s that’s constant, and hotel prices are being driven up,

2:24 and we have an industry to saying, you’re going to continue to drive up hotel prices. Who’s that going to imp Well, that’s going to impact the tourists. That’s going to impact all those businesses that make money off of tourism.

2:36 And why we continue to go down this pathway is beyond me. We have we have in Syracuse today there is an energy summit that the governor put together to talk about this new climate law. And I appreciate the governor governor for doing it, But the insanity of of this situation is the governor decided that one of the

2:59 things that you wanted to talk about is new and emerging technology. So modular nuclear is an example of a new and emerging technology. We know from every expert, from every agency in a state that there’s not enough electricity in this state and that we will not be able to produce enough electricity with the renewables that we currently

3:19 have online, and we need to look at other revenue sources. Well, there’s protesters out in Syracuse today protesting that they’re even talking about modular nuclear. And I think the issue for me, and the issue for a lot of businesses is when are our elected officials going to stand up and start using common sense and really start looking at affordability. Because

3:43 part of affordability is energy prices. Right, So if I’m the homeowner and my energy prices are spiking up, you know, hundreds upon hundreds of dollars a month. That makes a difference in my life. That makes a difference in how and how I survive. So I think that you know, one of the concerns that we have, and one of

4:02 the things that you know we’re trying to work on is is trying to make these members go with some common sense and think about the issues surrounding affordability to to kind of just use use your common sense and understand that what is driving the anks of every New Yorker is how much everything is costing. And you can’t

4:27 impose additional workers’ comp costs on on businesses and think that somehow those costs aren’t going to be shifted to the consumer.

4:37 Speaker 1 And last week, well, sub last week, another big business is leaving. They h who was that foot locker going to Saint Petersburg, Florida.

4:49 Speaker 2 It’s it’s it’s a it’s a common it’s a common problem. We did a study a while back which looked at the financial services industry, which which is a huge, queue huge revenue source for not only New York State, but particularly in New York City. And what we’re finding in that study was New York is no longer the capital

5:10 of financial services. We’re not creating the most jobs in the financial services sector. And there’s a simple reason there. It’s easier. We’re a remote economy now, so people can can do their business anywhere, and they’re going to go to places where it’s cheaper to do business. They’re going to go to places where the regulations and things that

5:32 from a government standpoint are easier for those businesses to operate. And in New York State, we continue to make it more difficult, right, And so I think that you know.

5:45 Speaker 1 You mentioned Paul, you mentioned the financial institutions. Why is NASDAK closing down their entire place on Times Square?

5:57 Speaker 2 Well, look, you know, John, again, like I think, I think what our elected officials need to understand is I think COVID really accelerated the change in how the economy operates. Because as you remember, John, you know, five six years ago, if you wanted to do a call with someone, when you had to do a conference call, right, I had

6:19 the painful conference call where everybody was talking over each other. Now you have zoom, you have all these different ways of communicating. People don’t need to be in the city in which they work anymore, right, And so we’re in a competition, not just we’re in a competition with every state for employees, for businesses like never before, because any

6:45 business can operate in North Carolina, Florida, wherever it might be, and still do business in New York. So we have to realize that, and we’re passing legislation and we’re doing things. We have to realize that we’re in a full fledged competition and we can’t be placing mandates additional costs on businesses and expect those businesses to sit there and shrug

7:04 their shoulders and say, oh, well, you know, it’s New York. So I’m just going to stay in New York. That’s not happening anymore. And so and that’s and that’s a major problem understood.

7:15 Speaker 1 What else would you like to a Sunday morning, we get a minute left, Well.

7:20 Speaker 2 You know, well, you know, I’ll tell you. I’ll tell you real quickly. One one other thing I think I think that you know, in light of all this conversation and what we’re talking about, I think what you’re going to see from the Business Council is we’re going to put our money where our mouth is and we’re going

7:34 to go out there and we’re going to start, you know, really supporting those members of the legislature Republican or Democrat, it doesn’t matter who are willing to sit down and have open, honest, and and good dialogue with us and others about the impact on issues on businesses and consumers.

8:00 You know, I don’t necessarily need someone who agrees with me all the time, but I want, we want to talk to members who are willing to have an open mind. And I think you’re going to see from the business community us being a lot more active with the elections coming up, with making sure that you know, members understand

8:17 that you know, we don’t expect the world, but we expect you to at least have the ability to talk to us and listen to us about issues understood.

8:28 Speaker 1 Well, Thank you, Paul, Paul Zuba, thank you, And let’s pray for New York and pray pray for America. And I think a lot of decisions are going to be made by the public on November fifth.

8:40 Speaker 2 Absolutely, thank you, John, I appreciate it.