The Rochester Business Alliance and its Unshackle Upstate partners are closely monitoring a proposal to amend Wicks Law. Repealing or significantly reforming Wicks Law - an antiquated law that increases taxpayer expense by requiring municipalities to hire multiple contractors on public projects - is on a platform of reforms proposed by the Unshackle Upstate coalition.

While we are pleased to see discussion of Wicks reform circulating in Albany, we do have some concerns about the current reform proposal.

The current law requires multiple contractors on any public project that costs more than $50,000. Unshackle Upstate advocates raising that threshold to $2 million. The reform proposal currently put forth sets two standards - $2 million for New York City and $1 million for the rest of the state. Unfortunately, $1million doesn't buy what it used to. Many public projects, particularly school expansions, run well in excess of $1 million dollars. In consideration of some of the unique economic challenges facing upstate, we believe that the Wicks threshold should be increased to the same level as New York City, $2 million statewide.

We will continue to keep you updated on our progress in raising the Wick's threshold from the current $50,000 level.

Meanwhile, the Rochester Business Alliance and other Unshackle coalition partners are also working behind the scenes to ensure that the recently enacted Workers' Compensation legislation provides the promised savings to businesses as well as access to adequate medical care and benefits for injured workers. Several technical experts from the Rochester Business Alliance Workers Compensation Reform Committee are acting as employer representatives on the Governor's workers' compensation task forces to help fine tune implementation of the new law. We continue to work closely with the Business Council of New York State and representatives of the Spitzer administration to make sure issues not covered in the current legislation, such as medical guidelines and reform of the administrative process, are addressed. We will keep you posted on the results.

For more on Unshackle Upstate - as well as to make your voice heard on the economic and job creation issues that matter to our community, log on to www. UnshackleUpstate.com and follow the instructions for sending a message to state leadership.

If you have any questions on Wicks or Workers' Compensation, contact Chris Wiest, Vice President of Public Policy at chris.wiest@rballiance.com