Crain's New York - April 29, 2013 - (Page 6)

THE City businesses in visa push INSIDER BY ANDREW J. HAWKINS For years, New York businesses that struggle to fill positions in computer science and technology have begged Congress to allow more skilled foreign workers. The reply has been consistent: Wait for comprehensive immigration reform. With that moment finally at hand, a coalition of New York business groups and corporations have resolved not to miss it.They are putting their muscle behind a national campaign to nearly double the number of foreign-worker visas, to 120,000, and to increase funding for science, technology, engineering and mathematics, or STEM, training for U.S. students and workers. The coalition features the Brooklyn and Manhattan chambers of commerce, the Business Council of New York State and corporations including behemoths Dell, Microsoft, Intel and General Electric. “So many more businesses are in this sector, and so many more growth opportunities are in this sector than 10 years ago,” said Nancy Ploeger,president of the Manhattan Chamber of Commerce. “We need to keep ahead of the times.” Each year, colleges and universities produce only about 40,000 A muscular effort to import more skilled workers pace with an increasingly techdriven global economy. The coalition—which has adopted the unwieldy name inSPIRE STEM, for Supporting Productive Immigration Reform and Education—is pressing its case with Sen. Charles Schumer and other members of the bipartisan “Group of Eight” senators leading the negotiations. Under one proposal, fees that companies pay to sponsor H-1B visas would go to the U.S. Department of Education, which would redirect the money to states to help fund STEM secondary and postsecondary education. Those provisions have been included in draft versions of the immigration bill. But the bill’s hotly debated handling of undocumented immigrants and border security are far from resolved, making its passage less than certain. Immigration advocates have blocked attempts to pass a standalone bill dealing only with visas for skilled workers because that would leave the business community little reason to support comprehensive immigration legislation, diminishing hopes for a broader reform. Most of the debate on immigration has centered on border security and a proposed 13-year path to citizenship for the millions of undocumented immigrants living in the U.S. Members of the inSPIRE STEM coalition say they are concerned that anti-immigration forces opposed to the bill could scuttle their chances of bringing more skilled workers into the country. “The baby gets thrown out with the bathwater,” Ms. Ploeger said. “You’ve got all these antiimmigration folks who are, in some cases, extremists who just don’t want anything. And the minute you start to spell ‘immigration,’ they’re against it.” Ⅲ LISTEN to a discussion at CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts by Erik Engquist and Andrew J. Hawkins buck ennis Big corporations, local chambers join immigration battle bachelor’s degrees in computer science, while 120,000 jobs requiring degrees in that field are created. Immigrants cannot fill the gap because the federal government caps the annual number of H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers at 65,000, all of which are scooped up in a matter of days, sometimes hours. Now, as Congress debates sweeping immigration reform, emotions surrounding the controversial issue cloud the process. But local business leaders believe their advocacy and influence can produce legislation that helps them keep For Stringer, winning’s the easy part T he office of the city comptroller has long puzzled New Yorkers, and sometimes even the politicians who have occupied the seat. The comptroller is held responsible for generating strong returns for five massive city pension funds, but the funds are co-managed by trustees serving different political masters and constituencies. He can replace firms that invest pension money but must first slog through layers of bureaucracy, which can take years. The comptroller can also generate headlines about waste and abuse as he audits city agencies but will inevitably be accused of grandstanding by City Hall. And he can use the office as a springboard to the mayoralty, but that’s worked only once. Anyone recall Abe Beame? In that context, Manhattan Borough President Scott Stringer (above), a shoo-in to succeed mayoral candidate John Liu as comptroller in January, laid out a plan last week to transform the huge yet obscure agency. “It is time,” Mr. Stringer said at a Crain’s Breakfast Forum, “that we reimagine that office from top to bottom.” He said he would seek to boost returns and better manage risk in the city’s pension funds, which have become a major concern as the city’s annual contribution to them has increased nearly sixfold since 2001, to about $8 billion. The fees the city pays investment managers have also soared, to some $400 million a year. Mr. Stringer, who lacks a viable opponent, said the rapid rise in city contributions to the pension funds was “not sustainable,” but refused to say if pensioners’ benefits should be cut. Mr. Liu has said they should not because benefits are modest and city payments will soon level off. Mr. Stringer said he would reduce fees by managing more money in-house and collaborating with other pension funds. The Democrat revealed little of his investment strategy but said moving some of the funds’ bond portfolio into alternative investments “is something that has to be on the table.” He endorsed the goals of a plan by Mr. Liu to streamline administration of the pension funds. Mr. Liu’s idea stalled in the state Legislature because unions that would lose power in the restructuring raised objections. Mr. Stringer said he has the political skills to achieve reforms. “Everyone wants to see fees lowered,” Mr. Stringer said. “Everyone wants to see the funds working collaboratively.” He said that he would not play “gotcha” with his audits—a charge leveled at Mr. Liu by the Bloomberg administration. Mr. Stringer later clarified that while he would hold the next administration accountable for waste, he would use his audits to produce change, not just headlines. Mr. Stringer said as comptroller he would like to have the office play a role in city contracts before they are put out to bid, because afterward, courts have ruled, comptrollers can only reject deals that are fraudulent. He also said the city pays more than $700 million a year in judgments and settlements—most of it by the NYPD, where payouts jumped 73% in the past decade. He suggested that the amounts could be reduced by following the example of the Health and Hospitals Corp., which reduced its payouts by 28% over that period, and of cities that have done analysis and instituted preventive measures to avoid suits. Finally, Mr. Stringer said, he’d revamp the comptroller’s office by integrating bureaus, dismantling silos and upgrading antiquated technology. He’ll surely get the chance. Whether anyone notices is another matter. Ⅲ Crain’s Insider, our award-winning politics newsletter, is now a blog. Read it every day at www.crainsnewyork.com/insider 6 | Crain’s New York Business | April 29, 2013 http://www.CrainsNewYork.com/podcasts http://www.crainsnewyork.com/insider

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Crain's New York - April 29, 2013

IN THE BOROUGHS
IN THE MARKETS
THE INSIDER
BUSINESS PEOPLE
REAL ESTATE DEALS
SMALL BUSINESS
OPINION
GREG DAVID
REPORT: EDUCATION
THE LIST
FOR THE RECORD
CLASSIFIEDS
NEW YORK, NEW YORK
SOURCE LUNCH
OUT AND ABOUT
SNAPS

Crain's New York - April 29, 2013