SYRACUSE — The Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce is the newest member of the CenterState Chamber Alliance.

Syracuse–based CenterState CEO and the Mohawk Valley Chamber of Commerce launched the alliance in June. The partnership allows members of each group access to services and benefits across all three organizations.

That includes networking programs, education and training sessions, and member discounts. The three groups remain independent with their own local identities, management teams, board control, member relations efforts, and services

In addition to cross-promoting events, the three groups will work together on advocacy.

“This new partnership is a natural progression of Cayuga County’s strong history of collaborating with partners throughout CenterState New York,” Andrew Fish, executive director of the Cayuga County Chamber of Commerce, said in a news release. “We understand the importance of thinking and working regionally and know our members will see significant benefits from our joining this alliance.”

The Cayuga chamber has more than 400 members while CenterState has 2,000 and the Mohawk Valley Chamber has 900.

“With the support of the Mohawk Valley Chamber and now the Cayuga County Chamber this alliance is bringing together the business community on a regional level,” CenterState CEO President Robert Simpson said in the release. “Through our collaborative efforts we are able to effectively deliver an amplified voice and the benefits needed most by our members.”

Contact Tampone at ktampone@cnybj.com

SYRACUSE — Increased mortgage volumes are pushing First Niagara Financial Group, Inc. (NASDAQ: FNFG) to open a new mortgage processing center in Syracuse.

Mortgage originations are up more than 66 percent over the past year at Buffalo–based First Niagara. The processing center in Syracuse will join others in Buffalo and New Haven, Conn. and will serve customers in First Niagara’s Central and Eastern New York regions.

“Obviously we’ve grown significantly in Central New York over the past 12 months with the HSBC acquisition,” says David Kavney, market executive for Central New York. “We’ve seen a significant increase in our residential mortgage business here in Central New York and across Upstate.”

Adding the center will create 25 new jobs at the bank. The center will be located in downtown Syracuse at 333 W. Washington St., where First Niagara already has a branch.

The 6,700-square-foot space was occupied previously by HSBC, but left vacant when the bank relocated remaining staff members following First Niagara’s acquisition earlier this year of the HSBC branch network in upstate New York.

The site will handle underwriting for loans once customers submit their applications, according to First Niagara. It will also set up loan closings.

And while already increasing mortgage volumes sparked the need for the new center, the site will also help the bank continue to grow lending in the future, says Tom Faughnan, senior vice president at First Niagara.

“I think number one, it gives us the ability to maintain and provide a great level of service,” he says. “But we also intend to fully leverage [the center] to increase that volume.”

The center will be up and running by Dec. 1, Kavney says. First Niagara already has about five of its staff members in place and expects to add another five in a week or so.

The goal is to be fully staffed by January or February, Kavney says.

The staff at the mortgage center will be new hires to the bank, Faughnan notes.

“One of the strategic opportunities we have here is that there’s a lot of good mortgage talent in the Central New York market and we want to be able to take advantage of that,” he says.

First Niagara has 49 branches and about 500 employees in its Central New York region, which stretches from the North Country to Binghamton and Auburn to the Utica-Rome area.

First Niagara has 430 branches, $36 billion in assets, and 6,000 employees in upstate New York, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, and Massachusetts.

First Niagara Bank is number four in the Syracuse metro area deposit market with 21 branches, more than $808 million in deposits, and a deposit market share of more than 7.5 percent, according to the latest statistics from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. First Niagara is also number four in the Utica–Rome market with nine branches, $405.9 million in deposits, and a market share of about 11 percent.

The bank is number two in the Binghamton market with 10 branches, $342.5 million in deposits, and a market share of 12.8 percent.

DeWITT  —  The Nov. 6 presidential election didn’t lift the cloud of ambiguity hovering around human resources, says a manager from the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) who was in Central New York a few days after the polls closed.

Michael Layman, manager of labor and employment policy at SHRM, visited the Syracuse area Nov. 9 to speak to the organization’s Central New York Chapter. He gave a presentation at the Double Tree by Hilton Hotel at 6301 State Route 298 in DeWitt to about 30 Central New York SHRM members.

“We probably have more uncertainty now than six weeks ago, six months ago,” Layman says. “Because it’s very short-term uncertainty.”

The looming federal fiscal cliff — an increase in tax rates coupled with automatic spending cuts, especially defense cuts, known as sequestration — is the cause of the short-term uncertainty, according to Layman. Pressure is mounting on the U.S. Congress to pass legislation that will prevent the cliff before it arrives with the New Year, he adds.

It doesn’t help that this is a lame-duck session of Congress, a session that includes members who were voted out of office or opted not to run for re-election, Layman says. Therefore, he thinks the issue could linger into 2013, causing headaches for human-resources departments.

“The most likely scenario in the lame-duck session is that the two parties agree to punt most of the issues into the New Year by three to six months and let the new Congress handle it,” he says. “So that will be complex for employers and benefit administrators to deal with a short-term tax extension, if Congress is to change tax rates in the middle of next year through larger tax reform.”

Federal contractors are also in an awkward position, according to Layman. If sequestration does go through, many could lose a large chunk of revenue, which could necessitate laying off employees, he says. But Department of Labor guidance told firms they don’t have to issue notices to employees that could be affected by such layoffs to comply with Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification (WARN) Act requirements that necessitate notification 60 days before mass layoffs or plant closings.

 Some companies still issued conditional notices, Layman says. Others, such as Lockheed Martin (NYSE: LMT), which employs about 2,300 people in Salina and another 2,900 people in Owego, have publicly stated that they will not issue sequestration-related WARN notices.

“If the employers didn’t comply with the WARN Act, will they be liable for back pay and missed wages?” Layman says. “I certainly have no answer for that, but that’s one big issue that HR professionals and employers are encouraged to seek counsel on.”

Layman extended his discussion beyond the fiscal cliff’s ramifications. He discussed an executive order President Barack Obama issued giving some undocumented workers under the age of 30 who came to the United States before they were 16 years old a two-year deferral from deportation. That order is likely to stand with the president’s re-election, he says.

But it could cause unresolved issues for human-resources departments.

“There’s a lot of questions about what’s that going to mean for an employer when an undocumented employee comes and applies for a job,” Layman says. “This is another issue where folks are going to want to seek legal counsel based upon their circumstances.”

Other issues Layman discussed included Internal Revenue Code Section 127 benefits — employers’ ability to give their workers up to $5,250 in tax-free educational assistance per year. Those benefits, which are a major retention tool, are set to expire at the end of the year, he says.

And, the election seemed to solidify the federal health-care reform law, Layman continues, adding that human-resources departments should still watch out for Congressional action that would modify it.

The Central New York SHRM has about 550 members, according to its chapter president, Pamela Gavenda. It brought Layman to the area to give its members a heads-up on issues they may face over the next 12 months.

“We thought this would be useful after the elections so we could get a preview of what’s going on over the next year,” Gavenda says.