The Business Council of New York State, Inc.
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2006 - HOW THE GRADING SYSTEM WORKS
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Issues and bills
Grading system
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Business Council Political Action Committee

At the beginning of the 2006 legislative session, all members of the State Senate and Assembly received "Ahead of the Curve," The Business Council's 2006 agenda for promoting innovation and improving the state's business climate. This document discussed the most critical jobs issues facing the state, as identified by Business Council member companies, and served as the basis for our 2006 scorecard. As the legislative session unfolded, we monitored action on specific legislation linked to those priorities — some of them bills we believe would have helped New York's job growth, and some of which we believe would have hurt us. (For a list of 2006 bills and a description of each, click here.)

Each legislator's action (or non-action) on each of those issues was then scored, in accordance with the scoring system explained below. Finally, letter grades were assigned to the score gradient as follows.

A = 10 or higher
B = 7 to 9 inclusive
C = 0 to 6 inclusive
D = -1 to -4 inclusive
F = -5 or lower
To see 2005 grading criteria, click here.

THE SCORING SYSTEM

An individual legislator's scores are based on votes (or no votes) on issues of concern to The Business Council - with additional points (both + and -) for legislators who take a leadership role for, or against, pro-jobs priorities.

ON LEGISLATION SUPPORTED BY THE BUSINESS COUNCIL

  • +1 point each for sponsorship and positive vote in support of legislation supported by The Business Council;
  • -1 point each for negative vote against legislation supported by TBC;
  • 0 points each for non-sponsorship, non-vote, no leadership
  • up to +3 discretionary bonus points for being a “champion” on pro-business legislation or, conversely, up to -3 points for leading the opposition to a priority bill. Generally, we have awarded +3 leadership points to legislators that were successful in championing two-house passage of pro-business legislation.

ON LEGISLATION OPPOSED BY THE BUSINESS COUNCIL

  • +1 point each for no vote in opposition to legislation opposed by TBC;
  • -1 point each for sponsorship and yes vote in support of legislation opposed by TBC;
  • 0 points each for non-sponsorship, non-vote, no leadership
  • up to -3 discretionary points for being a champion for anti-business legislation. Generally, we have awarded -3 points to legislators that were successful in championing two-house passage of anti-business legislation.

VOTING DATA

The Business Council relied on publicly available sources, including the Senate and Assembly web sites, the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission's "Legislative Retrieval System", and other legislative sources for data on sponsorships, co-sponsorships and legislative voting records. We obtained legislative voting records from "Statewatch", a subscription-based legislative reporting system, and from other sources within both houses of the state legislature. "Leadership" points were assigned by Business Council staff based on our direct experience in working with legislators on these issues, with some additional input from representatives of Business Council members companies.

In most instances, votes used in compiling our index scores were floor votes. Where a bill moved out of its committee of original jurisdiction, but failed to make it to a floor vote, the original committee vote was used. In our 2006 Index, committee votes were used for A.9486 (Assembly Energy Committee); A.9693-A (Assembly Labor Committee); and A.6193 (Assembly Insurance Committee).