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BUSINESS VIEWS Brooklyn,%u201e ~ ~ T n cIn te rv ie w s B y R o b T a ylo rLocal Businessmen Give Their Views On Congress%u2019s Tax Reform Bill%u201cYes, I do support the tax reformmeasures and believe they will ultimatelyhave a great benefit on small business people and ultimately make them more competitive. We have found in our own surveythat when the various tax rules are interpreted and then applied to business theirprofit margins would be increased.%u201d %u2014Harry Stucke, Associate Dean, Long IslandUniversity Brooklyn Center, School ofBusiness and Public Administration.%u201cIt has its good and bad points. The smallbusiness owner is going to be hurt. Becausethe bill is revenue neutral they are going tohave to find some money and someone isgoing to have to pay for it. Small businesseswill be asked to make some more contributions. So, from a corporate side it%u2019s bad, butfor the individual it%u2019s good.%u201d %u2014Nathan Upper, CPA and owner of Elite Inspection Services.%u201cYes, I think it%u2019s high time the code wassimplified. While some people andbusinesses will go through very hard timesif the bill is enacted, I think the changes arenecessary. The element I am most concerned about is Individual Retirement Accounts because they favor middle incomepeople. But, that is really the only majorconcern I have.%u201d %u2014 Charles Hamm, President, Independence Savings Bank.%u201cI am generally sympathetic to the notionthat individuals should be relieved of thetax burden and that business should be paying its fair share. But, I see another side ofthe issue which is that it could eliminate theability of local governments to finance theirdevelopment projects. It has led most of thebanks in Brooklyn to reassess their loans ...the entire burden of innovative financing isbeing placed on local and State government and away from the Federal government. %u2014 Andrew Fisher, Attorney; Chairman of the Brooklyn Economic Development Corporation%u201cNo, I don%u2019t support the changes and Ithink they are too extreme. From abusiness point of view, I think it%u2019s ridiculousthat some of the things are no longer deductable. I also think that taking away the Individual Retirement Account deduction wasludicrous. We have to take care of this aging population. IRAs were a good incentiveto getting people to save for retirement. Buttaking this away is going to cause moreproblems in the future. %u2014Brooke Stephens,President, Brooke Stevens and Associates.%u201cNo I don%u2019t support the changes. I thinkit%u2019s going to hurt business and it%u2019s going tohurt individuals. It seems that every timeBrooklyn gets together to bring morebusiness to the borough it gets zapped. Ithink it will hurt the business we%u2019re tryingto develop here and the jobs that wouldcome with it.%u201d %u2014 Dominick Massa, owner,New York Piggyback Services; Chairman ofBrooklynWorks.%u201cI don%u2019t support the tax bill reforms, atleast without any modifications in some ofthe other tax deductibles. By inhibiting taxcredits, they are inhibiting otherdevelopments from being made in theeconomy. Real estate is one area of theeconomy that I am most concerned about.%u2014 Robert Galletta, Vice-President NationalWestminster Bank, USA.%u201cSome of the very large businesses wereprotected by some Senators. Low-incomepeople were protected as well. By puttingthe weight on small business it willultimately hurt the wage earners who paytaxes as the effects of the bill winds throughthe economy. They got rid of all the advantages and brought the tax rate down, butnext year I think they will begin to slowlydrive the tax rate back up again. %u2014JosephFrench, President, Brooklyn Chamber ofCommerce.%u201cFrom our perspective it will have a verydetrimental effect on Brooklyn%u2019s business.We%u2019re trying to compete with other areas tobring more business to Brooklyn. Typically,developers are trying to work with the Cityand the tax benefits available to them arean incentive to move their businesses here.With the changes, they begin to look atthese things differently on a purely cashbasis. %u2014 James Stuckey, President, NewYork City Public Development Corporation.%u201cIt really doesn%u2019t make any difference tome if the legislation passes. Once you knowthe rules of the game you change accordingly. I suppose if you are in a smallmargin necessity business, you probablywould be concerned. For me, I will justchange and get used to the new regulations.I%u2019ll just have to wait and see.%u201d %u2014 Joe Koch,comic book wholesaler, Sunset Park.%u201cYes, I favor the legislation because whatwe have so far is so messy and confusing,that we owe it to ourselves to try an alternative to see if it works. If it doesn%u2019t, we goback to the old system. I%u2019m in favor of allthe changes with the exception of one ortwo, but basically I like the whole boat.%u201d %u2014Bill Harris, Renaissance Properties, Ltd.%u201cI don%u2019t see why 200 to 300 big corporations don%u2019t pay their fair share of taxes. Weare small guys and the government shouldbe giving us some breaks because I am notable to get the same special deals that thebig companies get. I support that businesseslike mine should be given more economicbreaks, though I also think that businessshould be making a larger contribution tothe government to make it run better. %u2014 A1Cabbad, owner of R & A Discount Stores.%u201cI think some of it has some validity, butnobody really seems to know how it%u2019s goingto work yet. Until it happens, I think we willbe just waiting to see whether the bottomfalls out. It doesn%u2019t sound too bad exceptthat if you have stocks you%u2019d better sellthem now, at least that%u2019s what I can tellfrom what they say on television. %u2014 DaleFishbaum, Vice-President, Manhattan Electric Company.%u201cThe reality is that nobody really knowsfor sure how it will effect the business andindividuals. Personally, most smallbusiness people pay their lion%u2019s share oftaxes anyway. It is the corporations thatdon%u2019t pay taxes. For small business owners,it is the reduction of personal income taxesthat will benefit them. I also spend a lot ofmoney giving to civic organizations.Without the write-off, I will have to thinktwice about these things. %u2014 Salvatore %u201cBuddy%u201d Scotto, Scott%u00a9 Funeral Home and President, of the Carroll Gardens Association.Given the increased tax burden placed onbusiness as well as the lower rates applied toindividuals, do you support the historic taxchanges now pending before Congress?SIAC President Tells Why Brooklyn Is Better For Data Processing Co.A s The Wall Street Firm Signs Letter O f Intent To Move To MetroTechBY CHARLES McQUADEOur decision to establish a dual processing site at MetroTech in Brooklyn is one ofthe most important decisions we%u2019ve madeas an organization.SIAC%u2019s role and importance within thesecurities industry have expanded tremendously since its inception in 1972. Today, weare a vital cog in the national marketsystem. The ability of the exchanges toopen their doors is dependent on our abilityto process data.The virtual dependency on technology forday-to-day operations adds a new dimensionto the term reliability. That the securitiesindustry is highly competitive focuses evenmore pressure on us to insure systemsavailability. Anything less could negativelyimpact the long-term viability of the exchange marketplace.In the past, we have sought to guaranteethe reliability of our systems by installingfault-tolerant redundant systems with folkin capability, so if one fails another canreplace it. In case of a catastrophic loss,such as fire, we arranged for the use ofalternative, off-site computer facilitieswhenever feasible. To maximize our insulation from points of vulnerability, we tookactions such as installing an intersite fiberoptic cable and alternate routing of communications lines between SIAC andmember firms.Because of this, SIAC enjoys an extraordinary reputation for systems availability.Day in and day out, these systems operatewith a high degree of reliability %u2014 that%u2019sour job and that is what is expected.This article about his company%u2019s deci-_1___A_ A%u2014 n ____ - ------------------------- lAA---- L . . DIUU IV 1UVVV IV w m j u n %u00ab 0 m u i v u v jCharles McQuade, president of theSecurities Industry Automation Corporation, and appeared in the company%u2019s summer newsletter.Despite these precautions, we felt thatmore was needed to ensure reliability in thedynamic marketplaces of today. It becameobvious to us that as long as we operatedfrom a single location, we were vulnerableto various kinds of widespreadcatastrophes.So last year we explored differentmethods of minimizing both exposure to asingle-site disaster and recovery time. Afterreviewing a number of alternatives, we concluded that the most feasible plan would beto develop an active, dual operating site.Our aim was to find a location that offered geographic separation for protectionagainst a major disaster, while at the sametime, was close enough so our people couldeasily interact with the downtown community which we serve. To insulateourselves from power and communicationsoutages, we wanted the new site to be on adifferent Con Ed power grid and be serviced from a different telephone centralswitching office.Another factor that prompted our searchfor an alternate site was the anticipated increase in real estate expenses upon renewalof our leases at 55 Water Street. A ten-yearaection of these expenses show substany more of a year-to-year increase thanwhat is tolerable.After evaluating all of these factors,Brooklyn emerged as the clear choice.Besides satisfying our technical needs, it offered easy access for our employees %u2014more than half of SIAC%u2019s employees live inLong Island, Queens and Brooklyn %u2014 andan attractive array of amenities.A major attraction was the PolytechnicUniversity, which is a world-class, high-___ i %u00ab-#%u25a0%u00bb%u2022 %u2014 nm*~ %u2014 %u2014 -u-%u2014 %u00ab%u00ab%u00ab i w i m v t v g j UIVMIUUVU' A UV V [/|/V i IU1UIJ IV*SIAC to interact with this University hasmany pluses, for both you as individualsand us as an organization.In addition, the city of New York is playing a very active role in the development ofCharles McQuadeO u r aim was to fin d a lo c a tio nth a t th a t o ffe re d g eo graphicse p a ra tio n fo r p ro te c tio n aga insta m a jo r disaster, w h ile a t thesam e tim e , was close enough souur people could eusiiy internetw ith th e dow n to w n co m m u n ityth a t we serve.downtown Brooklyn, and has made this project extremely attractive to us.What does this mean in terms of the bottom line for SIAC? The pure consequencesof extending our leases at 55 Water Streetfor the same amount of space we occupy today, will cost about $72 million more thanour present costs ($100 million) over a10-year period. This does not includebuilding a dual processing site.By reducing our commitment at 55 WaterStreet, moving approximately 800 of our1100 people to MetroTech and building adual computer site, the cost over the 10years, including real estate and incrementaloperating expenses, will be about $191million vs. a projected $171 million.In respect to other possible locations,Harborside in New Jersey was the closestto MetroTech in terms of cost; however,none offered an equivalent package to thatof MetroTech. Harborside, which is acrossthe Hudson River from the World TradeCenter, ran about $25 million more over the10-year period. In addition, we would havehad to share with other occupants an older,reconditioned building, and it would haveincreased the commute for a much largerpercentage of our employees.The best alternative in downtown Manhattan was 75 Park Place which is a newbuilding currently under construction. Being in the same geographic sector as ourcurrent location, the cost over the 10 yearswas approximately $45 million higher thanMetroTech.The emphasis on bottom-line costs is important. Once you proceed with a projectsuch as this, you lock yourself into a longterm commitment. If that commitment is*>/>%u2666 on<4 rlstvvm tK o w a ' ,v%u201c * %u2022 -%u00bb %u2014 -%u2022**%u2022 *%u00bb vhave to reduce our costs, we could beforced to cut from other segments of ourbudget.Page 3, The Phoenix/Brooklynjnc Section Two, September 18,1986