NY small businesses feeling left out

Pressconnects.com

When Tim Ward turned on the television in his Florida hotel room, a Start-Up NY commercial was promoting the benefits of the state's tax-free zones. The 59-year-old Vestal resident and retired IBM Corp. accountant was bewildered. Ward — on his eighth small-business venture — wondered what company would relocate from Florida to New York for a 10-year tax-free guarantee from the state with a reputation for some of the highest taxes and most expensive business operating costs in the nation. No doubt, the corporate tax rate cut comes as welcome relief to many of the state's larger employers. But for more than three-quarters of the estimated 1.7 million businesses across the state the action was a non-event. "It was irrelevant for most of my clients," said James Lewis, managing partner at the Binghamton accounting firm of Piaker & Lyons. "It will help the Kodak's and the IBM's." Most businesses across the state will get absolutely no tax relief from last year's action by the governor's office and the state legislature.