Aid programs available for businesses
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- June
- 22
U.S. Rep. Nita Lowey said that the federal stimulus package passed by Congress earlier this year should help bring relief to a troubled economy that has been wounded by rising unemployment, business closings and weak retail spending.
Unemployment in the metro area that includes Westchester, Rockland and Putnam counties hit 6.9 percent in May, up from 4.5 percent just a year earlier.
“Businesses in our area are hurting due to tough economic conditions,” said Lowey, D-Harrison. “But resources are available to help relieve employers’ tax burdens, avoid layoffs, and give employees new, marketable skills.”
Lowey and other public officials held a news conference today to outline the variety of government safety nets to help businesses during tough times.
For example, businesses with four or more workers are eligible to apply for up to $50,000 in worker training funds under the state’s Building Skills in New York State. The $5 million training program is partly financed by the federal stimulus package, also known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Officials said the goal of the program is to make sure that worker skills remain fresh in a fast changing global economy marked by major technological innovations.
“As Governor (David) Paterson often says, we are a state rich with resources, the most impressive of which is our human capital,” State Labor Commissioner M. Patricia Smith said. “We need to invest in that capital here in the Hudson Valley region, and let it grow. That is the ultimate goal of these initiatives, funded in part by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act.”Officials also said the following programs can aid businesses:
•Federal Work Opportunity Tax Credits administered by the state labor department can add up to thousands of dollars for each new worker hired from various groups, including veterans, summer youth, 18 to 39 year-old food stamp recipients and recipients in the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program.
•The state Labor Department’s Shared Work Program provides employers an alternative to layoffs. Rather than reduce payrolls to cut costs, an employer can use this program to reduce the hours for all or a particular group of employees. As a result, employees can receive partial unemployment insurance benefits to compensate for lost wages.
In 2008, participants in the Shared Work program included 43 companies and 660 workers in the Hudson Valley.
For more information about these and other programs, go to www.labor.ny.gov.
This entry was posted
on Monday, June 22nd, 2009 at 3:08 pm by Jay Loomis.
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