At the beginning of the 2005 legislative session last January, The Business Council wrote to all members of the state Senate and Assembly, listing what our member businesses had identified as the critical jobs issues facing New York State. As the legislative session unfolded, we monitored action on specific legislative issues that were linked to those priorities. Some of these bills would have helped New York's job growth; others, we believe, would have hurt us. (For a list of those 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. The total of all their scores was calculated, resulting in scores for individual legislators ranging from a +20 to a -2.

Finally, each quintile of the range of potential votes was assigned a letter grade. The resulting grade for each legislator was then marked:

• A = 14 or higher
• B = 7 to 13, inclusive
• C = 0 to 6, inclusive
• D = -1 to -7, inclusive
• F = -8 or lower

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, positive vote and "leadership" in support of legislation supported by The Business Council; for a maximum +3
• -1 point each for negative vote and "leadership" against legislation supported by TBC; for a maximum -2
• 0 points each for non-sponsorship, non-vote, no leadership
• +2 bonus points for champion and lead sponsor of bills that are approved by both houses

Example

ON LEGISLATION OPPOSED BY THE BUSINESS COUNCIL

• +1 point each for no vote or "leadership" in opposition to legislation opposed by TBC; for a maximum +2
• -1 point each for sponsorship, yes vote and "leadership" in support of legislation opposed by TBC; maximum of -3
• 0 points each for non-sponsorship, non-vote, no leadership
• - 2 additional points for champion and sponsor of anti-business bills that are approved by both houses

Example

VOTING DATA

The Business Council relied on publicly available sources, including the Senate and Assembly web sites and the Legislative Bill Drafting Commission's "Legislative Digest", for data on sponsorships and cosponsorships. 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 2005 index, committee votes were used for: S.4961 (Senate Energy), S.5427 (Senate Labor), S.1410 (Senate Transportation), A.5865 (Assembly Energy), A.6286 (Assembly Education), A.8669 (Assembly Labor).