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Jolime Fresh Garden Café opens a downtown Syracuse location
SYRACUSE — Jolime Fresh Garden Café has opened a downtown Syracuse location in Onondaga Tower at 125 E. Jefferson St. The eatery opened its first
Solvay Bank Q1 profit rises almost 13 percent
SOLVAY — Solvay Bank Corp., the holding company for Solvay Bank, reported earnings of $1.7 million in the first quarter, up $190,000, or 12.7 percent,
PAR Technology posts Q1 loss on severance and legal costs
NEW HARTFORD — PAR Technology Corp. (NYSE: PAR) reported a net loss from continuing operations of $369,000, or 2 cents per share, in the first
Rochester IP law association honors Welch Allyn engineer
SKANEATELES FALLS — The Rochester Intellectual Property Law Association (RIPLA) has honored a Welch Allyn engineer as its 2013 Distinguished Inventor of the Year. Welch
NY floriculture sales fell slightly last year, state ranks 9th in U.S.
New York ranked ninth in the nation for total commercial sales of floriculture crops in 2012. However, the overall value of the Empire State’s commercial
New York posts drop in initial unemployment claims
In New York state, 6,443 fewer people filed for first-time unemployment-insurance benefits in the week ending April 20 compared to the week before, according to
Budget Misses Opportunity to Move State Ahead
The 2013-14 New York State budget passed with total spending at $141.2 billion. Overall, we missed our opportunity to create a better state and left things status quo. We missed the chance to make our state friendlier to all businesses and provide real relief for taxpayers. Instead, we extended energy taxes for all residents, while
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The 2013-14 New York State budget passed with total spending at $141.2 billion. Overall, we missed our opportunity to create a better state and left things status quo. We missed the chance to make our state friendlier to all businesses and provide real relief for taxpayers. Instead, we extended energy taxes for all residents, while providing tax credits to the film industry. The budget also cuts from developmentally disabled and successful cancer-screening programs, which makes little sense in this day of escalating health-care costs.
Our state is repeatedly ranked the worst state in which to do business; however, these rankings seem to have no effect on the revenue-generating mentality that plagues Albany. We did not allow an energy tax, known as 18-A, to sunset in this budget, as previously scheduled. Leaders agreed to continue the tax until 2018. Every utility ratepayer in the state pays this tax that was enacted in the 2009 budget, and businesses and farmers contribute even more to this collection because it is based on usage. Yet the budget continues to give preferential treatment to the film industry by providing $420 million in film tax credits. I am not opposed to tax credits, but we need to create more judicious policies for all businesses that help our economy. Removing 18-A would have been a good place to start, as this would save ratepayers $500 million a year.
Our leaders in Albany decided to give a $350 tax credit to families with dependent children under 17, as long as they earn between $40,000 and $300,000. This is expected to cost the state $350 million and is only for those with dependent children under 17 — not for those without kids or for seniors with low income. This rebate check will be mailed to qualifying families in 2014. At the same time, this budget cuts about $90 million from developmentally disabled health services. Lawmakers from both sides of the aisle were confounded by these cuts, and voiced opposition during the budget debates. I am all for giving money back to the people, but it seems that the families who earn as much as $300,000 would not count a $350 rebate check as windfall from the government, or be in favor of taking funds away from our most vulnerable population.
Further, there were a number of “sweeps.” For example, this budget authorized that $90 million be directed from the New York Power Authority to the general fund. The Mortgage Insurance Fund also directed monies into the general fund to balance the budget. This is unfair to those who are charged and pay certain taxes — that the money is not being used for a designated purpose — and begs explanation or refund of taxes from the powers that be.
Good parts of the budget
The good news is this state budget does increase funding for Consolidated Local Street and Highway Program (CHIPs) by $75 million. This is something my colleagues and I fought for in Albany, to help ease local property taxes and keep funding in line with increased costs for fuel, asphalt, and materials. This will help localities maintain local roads and bridges, which includes 87 percent of New York’s roads and about half of our bridges.
Education was also allocated more funding. The budget provides $20.8 billion in total school aid — a $936.6 million increase. We increased funding for community colleges and increased library aid as well.
We also reduced the tax rate for qualifying manufacturers, so that within six years, this tax rate will be reduced by 25 percent. This is a good measure and a much-needed reform. I was pleased to see this in the final budget.
I was also pleased that funding for agriculture programs, such as the Northern New York Agriculture Development Program, will keep its funding. This program directly assists farmers with many aspects of operations — from growing produce to manufacturing value-added products. The New York Farm Viability Institute will see an increase as well — a similar imitative that provides a critical link between farming and manufacturing and jobs. This is good news for agriculture in our state.
There are many aspects to the budget, and this is column provides only a brief overview. I plan to outline in further detail in upcoming columns more about this year’s budget.
William (Will) A. Barclay is the Republican representative of the 120th New York Assembly District, which encompasses most of Oswego County, including the cities of Oswego and Fulton, as well as the town of Lysander in Onondaga County and town of Ellisburg in Jefferson County. Contact him at barclaw@assembly.state.ny.us, or (315) 598-5185.
Galaxy, IMG renew contract for broadcast rights to Syracuse University sports
SYRACUSE — Galaxy Communications, L.P., IMG College, and the Syracuse University (SU) athletic department on April 30 finalized the renewal of a five-year contract for broadcast rights to Syracuse University football, basketball, and lacrosse. It’s been a great relationship for Galaxy and all the parties involved, says Edward (Ed) Levine, president and CEO of Galaxy
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SYRACUSE — Galaxy Communications, L.P., IMG College, and the Syracuse University (SU) athletic department on April 30 finalized the renewal of a five-year contract for broadcast rights to Syracuse University football, basketball, and lacrosse.
It’s been a great relationship for Galaxy and all the parties involved, says Edward (Ed) Levine, president and CEO of Galaxy Communications.
Galaxy, which operates radio stations in both Syracuse and Utica, is headquartered at 235 Walton St. in Syracuse.
“I’m very proud of the fact that we delivered what I said we would deliver when we first did this contract …We’d give more coverage to SU than it’s ever had before,” Levine says.
Galaxy’s WTKW-FM (TK99/TK105) serves as the flagship station for both Orange football and men’s basketball broadcasts. Its sister-station, ESPN Radio 97.7 FM/100.1 FM (which also transmits at both 1200 AM and 1440 AM), broadcasts men’s lacrosse and women’s basketball games.
“Overall … it’s been great for the SU fan for the last five years,” Levine says.
Levine declined to release financial terms of the newly signed contract.
The original agreement was very specific because “we didn’t know each other,” but now SU and IMG know “what we are and who we are and what we do and I know them very well,” so the broadcast formats will continue as fans know them, Levine said.
But Levine says the latest discussions involved some ideas that would be good for the program long term, he believes.
“Maybe new entrees, especially with the ACC happening,” Levine says, referencing the school’s jump to the Atlantic Coast Conference this summer.
Levine declined to elaborate on any of the ideas under discussion.
Besides the game broadcasts, men’s head coaches Jim Boeheim (basketball), Scott Shafer (football), and John Desko (lacrosse) also make appearances on Galaxy radio stations, including the in-season shows on which fans can call and ask questions during football and basketball season.
“The theme of Syracuse University runs through, primarily the flagship TK99 and ESPN [Radio], but also all of our stations,” Levine says.
For example, KROCK (WKRL 100.9 FM and 106.5 FM) has produced its own football pre-game show, broadcasting live from the Syracuse University quad before the home games, Levine says.
Besides TK99/TK105, ESPN Radio, and KROCK, Galaxy also operates Syracuse radio stations that include Sunny 102 (WZUN 102.1 FM, 106.1 FM in Oswego) and ESPN Deportes (WSCP 1070AM in Oswego), which is ESPN’s Spanish-speaking network, according to the Galaxy website.
Galaxy’s 96.9 WOUR serves as the network affiliate for listeners in the Utica–Rome area, according to the Galaxy website. Besides WOUR, the company also operates Mix 102.5 (WUMX-FM), KROCK 94.9 (WKLL-FM), and ESPN Radio 99.1 FM and 1310 AM.
There’s a tremendous following for SU in the Mohawk Valley, Levine says.
“When you open the Utica paper the day after a football or basketball game, the SU result is on the front page. Not the front page of sports, it’s on the front page [of the paper],” he says.
Winston-Salem, N.C.–based IMG College is the worldwide rights holder for Syracuse University athletics, according to Levine.
IMG College is a collegiate multimedia, marketing and license/brand management company, representing more than 200 of the nation’s collegiate properties, including the NCAA and its 89 championships, NCAA football, conferences, and many of the nation’s colleges and universities, according to its website.
It contracts with SU directly for the radio rights, and chooses the play-by-play announcing teams. Galaxy subcontracts with IMG, according to Levine, and receives a portion of the commercial inventory to sell during the broadcasts.
Galaxy Communication employs about 80 people between its Syracuse headquarters and the location in Utica. Most of the employees, or between 70 percent and 80 percent, work in the Syracuse location, Levine says.
Galaxy annually generates about $13 million in revenue, Levine says.
Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com
Bonadio grows Syracuse–based internal-audit business with acquisition
SYRACUSE — The Bonadio Group’s acquisition of a Vermont accounting firm specializing in internal audits for banks will boost growth at Bonadio’s Syracuse–based internal audit team. Rochester–based Bonadio Group, which has Central New York offices in Syracuse, Geneva, and Utica, announced April 30 it would acquire Rutland, Vt.–based Independent Audit Associates (IAA) in a deal
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SYRACUSE — The Bonadio Group’s acquisition of a Vermont accounting firm specializing in internal audits for banks will boost growth at Bonadio’s Syracuse–based internal audit team.
Rochester–based Bonadio Group, which has Central New York offices in Syracuse, Geneva, and Utica, announced April 30 it would acquire Rutland, Vt.–based Independent Audit Associates (IAA) in a deal closing the next day. Financial terms were not disclosed.
IAA, founded in 1992, has worked with banks and bank-holding companies with total assets between $150 million and $1 billion. It brings Bonadio 14 new banking clients.
The Bonadio Group will keep IAA’s Rutland office, which employs six people. They will report to Thomas Giglio, principal and head of Bonadio’s internal audit team in Syracuse, which employs four full-time staff members. Six other Bonadio employees from its external audit team also work for the internal audit unit on an as-needed basis, according to Giglio.
“[Internal audit is] an area that we have always felt there’s a growth opportunity,” Giglio says in an interview. “We’ve known some of the people at IAA. We’ve run into them at networking events We know their expertise, and with their client base it was a good fit. As a combined group we feel we can really grow going forward.”
As a result of the acquisition, Bonadio Group expects its internal audit team will generate annual billings of more than $1.2 million. Before the deal, the audit teams of IAA and Bonadio each produced about $600,000 in annual billings, according to Giglio.
He says that Bonadio Group expects to add employees in Syracuse as the combined internal-audit team grows. “Maybe one person a year in Syracuse; that would be the plan.” Giglio says.
The Bonadio Group’s internal audit unit has worked with banks and credit unions ranging from $50 million in assets up to about $6 billion in assets. The Bonadio team works with financial institutions who have either fully or partially outsourced their internal-audit function. The work includes looking at the bank or credit union’s internal-control policies, procedures, monitoring processes, and compliance with regulatory requirements, according to Giglio.
“[The acquisition] brings us into markets we’re not currently in. [IAA] is doing the same types of work that we’re doing but they’re in markets where we either have no presence or a small presence,” Giglio says. IAA has clients in Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and New York, he adds.
Stepping outside New York
This is the first acquisition outside New York for Bonadio Group, which has used acquisitions to grow to become upstate New York’s largest independent accounting firm.
“As our client base continues to expand beyond the borders of New York State, we were actively pursuing opportunities that would allow us to physically meet our clients’ demands, and have done so with our first office location in New England,” Thomas Bonadio, CEO and managing partner of Bonadio Group, said in a news release.
The Vermont acquisition is the second for Bonadio Group in six months. The firm acquired Richard Zweifel’s CPA team last fall, opening its first office in Utica.
The Bonadio Group says it currently has more than 380 employees statewide and annual revenue exceeding $55 million. The 35-year-old firm also has offices in Albany, Buffalo, Perry, and New York City.
The Syracuse office, located at 115 Solar St., employs 44 people total, according to Giglio.
The Bonadio Group first entered the Syracuse market in 2007 with the acquisition of Loguidice & Kamide, CPAs PLLC. Bonadio acquired the Syracuse operations of Philadelphia–based ParenteBeard in 2011, which added 21 employees and four new partners.
The Bonadio Group offers accounting, business advisory, payroll, and personal financial services, and was ranked number 54 in the Accounting Today 2013 list of the top 100 CPA firms.
Contact Rombel at arombel@cnybj.com
Woodbine and Rounded create joint venture
SYRACUSE — Rounded Development (Rounded) and the Woodbine Group recently announced a joint venture called Edison Insight. “We chose the name because Thomas Edison was more than an analytic thinker,” said Eric Candino, a founder at Rounded. “Edison used data-driven decision making, but it was based on customer experience … He was one of the
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SYRACUSE — Rounded Development (Rounded) and the Woodbine Group recently announced a joint venture called Edison Insight.
“We chose the name because Thomas Edison was more than an analytic thinker,” said Eric Candino, a founder at Rounded. “Edison used data-driven decision making, but it was based on customer experience … He was one of the first design thinkers who met user needs by enhancing the human experience.”
Edison Insight is a Web-based application designed to revolutionize the hospitality industry by providing a tool that gathers and analyzes customer satisfaction, keeps track and evaluates housekeeping and other hospitality functions, and streamlines maintenance requests, all in real time. “No more pen and paper, no spreadsheets, no phone calls to get something done,” adds Thomas J. Fernandez, Woodbine’s director of business development. “There is no need for time-consuming follow-up or missed communications.
“I originally came to Rounded to develop a customer survey. Customer satisfaction is very important to [our properties]; it helps to differentiate us and gives us a competitive advantage. Rounded listened and suggested a solution that went well beyond my original request,” notes Fernandez.
“After listening to Tom, we went to the next level by adding other modules and by creating a mobile application that was easy to navigate,” says Steven VonDeak, a partner and founder of Rounded. “We also were concerned with providing analytics that would give the Edison Insight users real-time monitoring of the [hospitality functions]. Both parties soon began to realize that this application would have broad appeal to the boutique, independent hospitality industry, not to just to Woodbine properties.”
Fernandez and Swanson, president and owner of Woodbine Group, created a new entity called Swanson Fernandez Enterprises, LLC (SFE). SFE then joined with Rounded, a company formed by the merger of Rounded and AppFury. Rounded is primarily responsible for the software development and support while FSE focuses mainly on sales and marketing. The two companies split the revenues 50/50, each paying its related expenses from their share of the income.
“There is no real competition at this time for the small, independent hotel owner,” says Fernandez. “We are currently compiling a database of ‘one-off’ hotels and small chains, and we hired two internal sales reps. The marketing is focused on phone calls and emails, using the Internet to demonstrate our Web application … We now have three modules to sell a la carte on a subscription basis, each at $99 per-month per property. For those who prefer to pay an annual fee [up front], we offer a discount.
“Our initial focus is on the Northeast,” continues Fernandez. “The database currently has 1,100 entries … Our sales projection for the first year calls for 150 contracts, but our goal is 300.”
Rounded is headquartered in the Tech Garden at 235 Harrison St. in Syracuse. The firm employs 12 people who develop desktop or mobile websites, Web applications, and content-management systems. The Woodbine Group, a privately held, commercial real-estate holding and development company, employs 300 and is headquartered at 505 E. Fayette St. in Syracuse. Founded in 1978, Woodbine, which owns and manages more than 1.3 million square feet of retail, warehouse, industrial, and hospitality space, generates $19 million in annual revenue.
Contact Poltenson at npoltenson@cnybj.com
Stay up-to-date on the companies, people and issues that impact businesses in Syracuse, Central New York and beyond.