Count Question Resolution Program - Federal Register Notice

In the Wednesday, May 26, 2010 Federal Register there was an announcement regarding the 2010 Census Count Question Resolution Program. Written comments must be submitted on or before July 26, 2010.

Income Tax - Taxpayer Rights Advocate interview

An interview with Jack Trachtenberg, appointed Deputy Commissioner and Taxpayer Rights Advocate in October 2009. He answers questions about his role and goals at the New York State Tax Department.

Among his responsibilities: help ensure that taxpayers receive fair treatment, evaluate the tax laws and regulations, as well as Tax Department?s practices, recommend improvements, and impartially resolve certain tax-related disputes.

To view the entire web page, visit HERE.

Doing Business

The Doing Business project "provides objective measures of business regulations and their enforcement across 183 economies and selected cities at the subnational and regional level." As hillsearch.org puts it, DB, since 2003, "covers 10 indicator sets/topics in 181 economies at the sub-national and regional levels. The indicator sets/topics span the business lifecycle and include: starting a business, dealing with construction permits, employing workers, registering property, getting credit, protecting investors, paying taxes, trading across borders, infrastructure, enforcing contracts, and closing a business.
"You can also use Doing Business to access more in-depth information on rankings, gender laws, reformers, business laws, and more."

2010 KIDS COUNT SPECIAL REPORT

The 2010 KIDS COUNT Special Report "Why Reading by the End of Third Grade Matters" is now available HERE.

globalEDGE™

From hillsearch.org

If you're looking for international business resources, try globalEDGE. You can access globalEDGE's International Business Resource Desk, industry profiles, state and country insights, diagnostic tools, and more. Also check out their international business blog.
globalEDGE includes proprietary Market Potential Indicators and their Database of International Business Statistics, as well as additional indices, risk assessments, and interactive trade data. Or use diagnostic tools loaded with scores, charts, graphs, and customized business recommendations.
globalEDGE was created by the International Business Center at Michigan State University and is partially funded by a U.S. Department of Education Title VI B grant.

copyrightlaws.com

As the intro says:

Bookmark this weblog as your one-stop site on copyright law, licensing and digital property. You will find resources for copyright and licensing education, management and compliance. To get started...pick a category, tag or page, or initiate a search to find print and electronic newsletters, articles, courses, books, and an opportunity to obtain a custom consultation on your issues.

TradeStats Express™ - State Export Data

Export data include:
Global Patterns of a State's Exports
State-by-State Exports to a Selected Market
Export Product Profile to a Selected Market

IRS Tax Statistics

From hillsearch.org:

Spend a little time on the IRS web site checking out the tax data available for businesses, individuals, and nonprofits.

Business tax statistics include access to popular financial ratios for many industries, from cost of goods sold, expenditures, net income, assets, and more - typically organized by the North American Industrial Classification System and separated out by type of business structure (corporation, partnership, sole proprietorship, for instance).

You can even obtain individual income tax data by ZIP code--but the cost for this is $25 per state or $500 for the entire U.S.

And don't forget the nonprofit sector - in addition to statistics, here you can also download a "master list" of all tax-exempt organizations (nonprofits) in the US, or within a particular state.

Top 10 Cities To Get Your First Job, College Grads

Unfortunately, none of them in New York State. Tulsa? TULSA?

Click the image to enlarge

Source: Fixr

Educational, professional and other services data

Data for Economic Census Sector(s) listed below have recently been released on the Census Bureau's American FactFinder web site.

* NAICS sector 61, Educational services
* NAICS sector 81, Other services (except public administration) Get Data
To access selected key data for these sectors for New York in the Economy-Wide Key Statistics data file, click here.

*NAICS sector 54, Professional, scientific, and technical services
To access selected key data for this sector for New York in the Economy-Wide Key Statistics data file, click here.

Call Center to be Operational on May 21

The New York State Department of Taxation and Finance today announced that a federal court judge has signed a temporary restraining order barring the furlough of state employees. This means that the previously-announced May 21 closure of the Department’s call center will not occur. The call center will be fully staffed and Department employees will not be furloughed on that day.

Bloomberg Businessweek Company Insight Center

When the press release is right, it's right:

The Web offers investors a rich trove of information. But it has little value in today's fast-paced business environment if you can't quickly find the nuggets you need. That's why BusinessWeek is launching the Company Insight Center on BusinessWeek.com.

The CIC, or Companies Channel, combines our resources with those of Standard & Poor's (MHP) Capital IQ division (like BusinessWeek, a unit of The McGraw-Hill Companies (MHP)) to pull together up to 33 pages of data, charts, profiles, and news stories on each of 42,000 public companies in the U.S. and abroad. The result: an unparalleled array of corporate data.

CIC offers easy navigation to get you from, say, stock price charts that you can customize; to earnings reports and estimates; to profiles of chief executives and board members; to a history of their stock trades. Also available are reports on some 320,000 private companies, though since they're private, the data are more limited.

Want to know what boards—public, private, and nonprofit—those execs and directors sit on? The People page in the Companies Channel can show you that. As you click on each board member, you can see the other members of the board and their affiliations. Click on any of those directors, and you see their other boards and who else sits on them, and so on. You won't find this feature, a proprietary service from Capital IQ, anywhere else on the Web without paying a hefty fee.

There are several ways to get to the CIC pages. From the BusinessWeek.com home page, click on the Companies tab on the navigation bar. You'll also find a stock quote search box on all pages that will take you to the Snapshot page for whatever company you type in. In addition, all ticker symbols and mentions of companies in BusinessWeek.com stories will link to that company's Snapshot, which is a compendium of market-related data, company news, and biographical and compensation info on top executives. Similarly, executives' names in online stories will link to their CIC profiles.

Historical gasoline prices

From the BUSLIB-L listserv:

Historical gasoline prices may be found here, and other related tables from the US Energy Information Administration are found here.

SeeThroughNY Posts 133 Updated School Labor Contracts

Updated school labor contracts for 71 teacher unions and 62 school superintendents were posted this week on www.SeeThroughNY.net, the Empire Center's government transparency web site.

The newest contacts are part of the most comprehensive public collection of school district labor contracts in New York.

The full text of this press release is available here.

Contact: Lise Bang-Jensen
518.434.3100
Find them on Facebook

Taxation Call Center closed on May 21

New York State Department of Taxation and Finance Acting Commissioner Jamie Woodward today announced that the Department's call center will be closed on May 21 during a one-day furlough for unionized state employees, and that taxpayers will be able to use the Department's web site to transact business on that day.

To view the entire document please visit HERE.

NEW YORK STATE RESEARCH LIBRARY 2009 UPDATE ONLINE

The 2009 Update for the New York State Research Library is now online and can be accessed here.

The Library has enjoyed a year of providing quality information services to New Yorkers and access to an extensive array of 21st century information resources. Highlights include the launch of new digital audio technology in the Research Library’s Talking Book and Braille Library, the creation of the New Netherland Research Center following a visit from the Crown Prince and Princess of the Netherlands, and the arrival of a new State Librarian, Bernard Margolis. All was accomplished under the shadow of an unprecedented deficit in the State budget and a declining economy. The State Research Library looks forward to continuing to serve New York’s people and government and the research community at large in 2010 through its resources and programs.

Questions or comments about the online Update can be directed to Valerie Chevrette at the New York State Library at 518/474-5961 or via email at vchevret@mail.nysed.gov.

Videos re 2010 Census Door-to-Door Phase

With census takers going door-to-door for the 2010 Census, there is a lot of information floating around about what the process for the Non-Response Follow-Up phase entails. Why is the Census Bureau collecting certain information on the form? How do I know that my data is safe? Is this operation the same as the American Community Survey (ACS)? How do I recognize a census taker?
Please click on the following videos to find answers to some of these questions. It is important that proper information gets to your customers that have not responded to the 2010 Census. Please feel free to forward these videos and encourage everyone to answer the census taker, so that we make sure that everyone is counted.

In English

How is my data protected?
2010 MMC
YouTube

What is the difference between the 2010 Census form and the American Community Survey form?
2010 MMC
YouTube

Why does the Census Bureau collect information on Hispanic origin?
2010 MMC
YouTube

En Español

¿Cómo reconozco un empleado del Censo?
2010 MMC
YouTube

Income of the Population 55 or Older

This recently released biennial report from the Social Security Administration reveals the dependence of America's older generations on Social Security benefits. The report details the type and amount of income received by people aged 55 or older in 2008, examining economic status by a variety of demographic characteristics. One of the findings: Social Security accounts for fully 58 percent of the income received by people aged 65 or older. Private pensions account for only 8 percent.

description from the American Consumers Newsletter.

The Tea in Television

American Consumers Newsletter
from Cheryl Russell, Editorial Director,
New Strategist Publications

The latest time use statistics might reveal the fuel of the Tea Party fire: the growing television addiction among older men. No one watches more TV than men aged 65 or older. They spend nearly one-third of their waking hours (4.63 hours per day) watching television as their primary activity, according to the 2008 American Time Use Survey. Men aged 55 to 64 rank second in television viewing (3.81 hours per day). Men aged 45 to 54 rank fourth (3.09 hours per day), behind women aged 65 or older (3.69 hours per day). Older men not only watch a lot of TV, but they are watching a lot more. In the past five years, men aged 45 or older have added 28 to 46 minutes to their daily dose of television. No other age group comes close.

These findings might explain the demographics of the Tea Party movement. Eighteen percent of Americans say they are Tea Party supporters, according to a New York Times poll taken last month. The 75 percent majority of supporters are aged 45 or older (versus 50 percent of all adults), and 59 percent are men (versus 49 percent of all adults).

What is the link between television and Tea Party supporters? Just ask them, which is what the New York Times did. The 47 percent plurality of Tea Party supporters acknowledge that most of their information about the movement comes from television. Not just any television, either. Sixty-three percent say they are most likely to watch Fox News for information about politics and current events.

The great majority of Tea Partiers think their beliefs are shared by most Americans. Fully 84 percent think the views of the Tea Party movement reflect the views of the general public. They are misinformed about this, and that might explain their anger.
According to the New York Times:
• 85 percent of Tea Party supporters do not think the federal government should require Americans to get health insurance. Only 45 percent of the general public agrees.
• 76 percent of Tea Party supporters want the federal government to cut the deficit rather than create jobs. Only 42 percent of the general public agrees.
• 51 percent of Tea Party supporters think global warming will not have a serious impact on the environment. Only 24 percent of the general public agrees.
• 52 percent of Tea Party supporters think too much has been made of the problems facing blacks. Only 28 percent of the general public agrees.
• 53 percent of Tea Party supporters think the Supreme Court's Roe vs. Wade decision (giving women the right to abortion) was a bad thing. Only 34 percent of the general public agrees.
• Only 17 percent of Tea Party supporters favor raising taxes on households making more than $250,000 a year. The 54 percent majority of all Americans favor higher taxes on those households.
Fifty-three percent of Tea Party supporters say they are angry about the way things are going in Washington. When asked why they are angry, the single most important reason--after health care reform--is that Washington does not represent the people. That may be true, but Tea Party supporters do not represent the people either. They are much more likely than the average American to be retired, collecting Social Security benefits, and covered by Medicare. They are much more likely than the average American to watch a lot of TV.

If you have questions or comments about the above editorial, e-mail New Strategist at demographics@newstrategist.com.

New York: Exports, Jobs, and Foreign Investment

Report for March 2010.

*Export-supported jobs linked to manufacturing account for an estimated 3.1 percent of New York's total private-sector employment. More than one-fifth (20.9 percent) of all manufacturing workers in New York depend on exports for their jobs. (2008 data are the latest available.)

*A total of 27,329 companies exported goods from New York locations in 2007, the third highest number among the 50 states. Of those, 94 percent, or 25,657 firms, were small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), with fewer than 500 employees.

*SMEs generated more than half (55 percent) of New York's total exports of merchandise in 2007. That is the third highest percentage among the 50 states and well above the national average of 30 percent.

*In 2007, foreign-controlled companies employed 433,600 workers in New York. This was the second largest total among the 50 states (only California was greater). Major sources of New York's foreign investment in 2007 were the United Kingdom, Germany, France, Canada, and Switzerland.

*New York's export shipments of merchandise in 2009 totaled $57.3 billion. New York was the third largest exporter among the 50 states in 2009.

How Americans Spend their money on DIY Improvement

Click the image to enlarge

Source: Fixr


- thanks to Raul

Your State, Your Future

Here you will find 51 state-specific R&D Sheets and K-12 STEM Ed Report cards to help illustrate the importance of scientific research to state and local economies, job growth, innovation, our standard of living, and national security.

One highlight of this work is a feature which ranks states according to a variety of indices provided by U.S. Census Bureau, the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, TechAmerica, The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation, and several other organizations which track specific trends in this area.

Please feel free to share these State R&D sheets and STEM Ed Reports with your elected representatives as well.

Also included:
Human Capital Investment Composite Index
2008 State Technology and Science Index
Technology and Science Work Force Composite Index
State New Economy Index: Benchmarking Economic Transformation in the States

New York State Canals

The New York State Canal Corporation, a subsidiary of the New York State Thruway Authority, operates the Erie, Champlain, Oswego, and Cayuga-Seneca canals. These canals are used for both commercial and recreational purposes.

Canals opened for 2010 season operation at 7:00 am on Saturday May 1st. Extensive information about the New York State Canal System can be found online at www.nyscanals.gov, including "Notices to Mariners" where up-to-date closures, openings, water levels, and other important details are provided.