Business groups applaud state budget agreement | Rochester Business Journal New York business news and information

Two of New York’s leading business groups on Monday applauded the $132.5 billion state budget agreement reached on Sunday.

“By reaching a bipartisan budget agreement that cuts spending, avoids significant new taxes or increased borrowing, the state’s leaders are sending powerful message to the state’s business community,” said Acting President Heather Briccetti of the New York State Business Council Inc. in a statement.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo, Senate Majority Leader Dean Skelos and Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver reached a tentative deal Sunday night on a 2011-12 budget that cuts spending by 2 percent compared with the current year and eliminates a $10 billion deficit, they said.

The budget includes no new taxes and no borrowing, and will reduce the projected deficit for 2012-13 to $2 billion from a projected $15 billion.

It establishes Recharge New York, a permanent economic development power program, and improves the Excelsior Jobs Program, state leaders said.

“This agreement reverses Albany’s tax-and-spend addiction and takes a tremendous first step in restoring New York’s economic prosperity,” said Michael Durant, interim state director of the New York chapter of the National Federation of Independent Business.

Durant also praised the expiration of the so-called millionaire’s tax for New Yorkers making at least $1 million annually.

“There is still work to do to make New York competitive,” Briccetti said. “It took decades of overspending and overtaxing to seriously damage our economy, and that cannot be fixed overnight. But this budget agreement goes a long way toward putting New York on the right track.”