BEGIN:VCALENDAR VERSION:2.0 PRODID:-//Limba - ECPv6.16.5//NONSGML v1.0//EN CALSCALE:GREGORIAN METHOD:PUBLISH X-WR-CALNAME:Limba X-ORIGINAL-URL:https://limba.net X-WR-CALDESC:Events for Limba REFRESH-INTERVAL;VALUE=DURATION:PT1H X-Robots-Tag:noindex X-PUBLISHED-TTL:PT1H BEGIN:VTIMEZONE TZID:America/New_York BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20120311T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20121104T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20130310T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20131103T060000 END:STANDARD BEGIN:DAYLIGHT TZOFFSETFROM:-0500 TZOFFSETTO:-0400 TZNAME:EDT DTSTART:20140309T070000 END:DAYLIGHT BEGIN:STANDARD TZOFFSETFROM:-0400 TZOFFSETTO:-0500 TZNAME:EST DTSTART:20141102T060000 END:STANDARD END:VTIMEZONE BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20131004T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20131004T000000 DTSTAMP:20131004T040000Z CREATED:20131004T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20131004T040000Z UID:4560-1380844800-1380844800@limba.net SUMMARY:LIMBA Steve Levy- Center for Cost Effective Government DESCRIPTION:Our speaker this morning at LIMBA was former County Executive Steve Levy. Steve established the "Center for Cost Effective Government" for the purpose of "preventing municipal government from going over the cliff." \n  \nLevy described the current problems as two parts. Revenues are reduced and expenses continue to rise. Revenues will again rise in the future\, but the revenues will be constantly lagging increasing costs\, according to Steve. \n  \nLevy sees the biggest hole in the bucket being personnel costs. He states the problem is not just that municipal salaries are high\, pensions and work rules are really killing the goose. \n  \nPension funding is based on market fluctuations. The "guaranteed benefit" plans that are in place: \n   \n1) Dictate that the taxpayer needs to reach deeper into his pockets when the stock investments under-perform. Ironically the taxpayers are also hurting from their own losses. \n   \n2) Overtime in the final years of employment increases the pay-out\, instead of basing the payout on the regular salary. "That is why we see enormous pension payouts" \n   \n3) 20 year retirements mean we can conceivably be paying a police officer that came on the force at age 22 and retiring at 42 another 40 or more years. \n   \n4) Mandatory arbitration. Arbitrators are hired by the unions and always find for the highest increase in order to get re-hired again. \n   \n5) Work rules. -Vacations\, holidays\, paid sick leave\, and personal days amount to 100 days. If you add in weekends they are working less than half as many days as there are in the year.    \n   \n6) Step increases- (Tri borough Agreement) Step increases are not part of the union negotiations. If the contract expires\, the step increases continue. This takes the pressure off the union to negotiate. \n   \n7) Disability retirements increased 648% since 1959 Levy finds this rate of disability very suspect since we have safety programs that were unknown in 1959\, including OSHA legislation. Fraud in LIRR retirements is the most visible example\, but we must examine the rest of the municipal workforce. \n  \nBeyond that Levy asserts that we are an enormous regional population that gets short-funded from Albany and Washington. New York City has 9 million people and garnered $30 billion in federal funds. We on Long Island celebrate if we get a few hundred thousand and we have 3 million people. "If it were proportional we would be getting $10 billion." \n  \nMr. Levy came to us armed with many facts and examples for the audience to question\, and they did. \n  \nErnie Fazio \n  \nThis Meeting was sponsored by M&T Bank and Bill Miller. Thank you! URL:https://limba.net/calendar/limba-steve-levy-center-for-cost-effective-government/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20131018T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20131018T000000 DTSTAMP:20131018T040000Z CREATED:20131018T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20131018T040000Z UID:4569-1382054400-1382054400@limba.net SUMMARY:Dr Sam Stanley - Pres.of SUNY Stony Brook TBC Nat Grid Spons DESCRIPTION:  \n \nOur speaker this morning at LIMBA was Dr. Samuel Stanley\, president of SUNY Stony Brook. We asked him to speak about the economic impact of the university. Dr Stanley brought with him two of the contact people that could assist the business community in doing business with the institution. \nStanley began by discussing the funding which has come under pressure lately but he had an optimistic report that allowed savings in personnel and learned efficiencies to enable the school to grow with only modest tuition increases. \nOnce funding problems are solved planning becomes easier. In the plans are a net 250 new faculty members\, but these faculty people will be doing mostly research and that means that money to fund those individuals will be forthcoming\, and those pursuits tend to generate more funding This adds the economic strength of the region. \nSUNY 2020 \nWork is being done on Smart Grid Technology\, Energy Efficiency\, and Coastal Management. These efforts are essential to residents\, business\, tourism\, and commuting. \nThere are two new medical building being built one of them will be a $220 million dollar investment. This is a very large construction job\, but the finished product will generate many permanent jobs. \nStony Brook’s education mission is aligned with science and technology and that in and by itself very important\, but the university maintains a theater\, The Staller Center. It has a stadium and an active sports program. All of these assets help funnel assets into the local economy. \nThe Q&A that came after Sam’s formal remarks was interesting too. It was a fast moving back and forth that allowed a lot of the people in the audience to take part. Dr Stanley adeptly handled each question with a level of confidence that we expect of someone with his background. We were not disappointed. \nErnie Fazio \nThank you Ken Nevor Anna Krause\, and Anna Marie Woodroof for helping with the meeting registration and greeting the guests. \nThis meeting was sponsored Ray Homberger and National Grid URL:https://limba.net/calendar/dr-sam-stanley-pres-of-suny-stony-brook-tbc-nat-grid-spons/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT BEGIN:VEVENT DTSTART;TZID=America/New_York:20131025T000000 DTEND;TZID=America/New_York:20131025T000000 DTSTAMP:20131025T040000Z CREATED:20131025T040000Z LAST-MODIFIED:20131025T040000Z UID:4580-1382659200-1382659200@limba.net SUMMARY:Mfg Back to Suffolk -Anne Shybunko-Moore\, President\, GSE DESCRIPTION:Anne Shybunko Moore was our speaker Friday morning.  Shybunko is president of GSE Industries. GSE has a long history on Long Island but had purchased land in Georgia a few years ago and built a manufacturing facility.  It all seemed so attractive but a trained workforce was less available. And retention of those who were hired was difficult. The decision to bring that operation to Long Island was motivated by the confidence the company had in our local labor force. Some of the Georgia personnel did come to Long Island but most of the hires were recruited here on Long Island. \nGSE had an option to locate in South Carolina near the new Boeing manufacturing facility. It may have been a good fit because the carbon fiber materials that GSE makes are used in aircraft. Anne opted to make the relocation to Long Island because of the confidence in the region. She said she also like living here. \nSuffolk County IDA president\, Anthony Manetta was also on the program and gave the audience information on the workings of the agency. According to Manetta poaching of Long Island business is an event that happens every day. Retaining business is more than tax abatement strategies\, there are services rendered to business to help them prosper and remain in place. These services are quite straight forward and available to any company that can demonstrate a plan for a successful business. That point was made when someone asked if Anne Shybunko’s company received preferential treat ment because she had a woman owned business.  Help received from the IDA was based on the merits of the company’s application stated Shybunko URL:https://limba.net/calendar/mfg-back-to-suffolk-anne-shybunko-moore-president-gse/ LOCATION:NY END:VEVENT END:VCALENDAR