New NFIB state director hears similar concerns as in last job

Former Unshackle Upstate leader tackles related issues

ROCHESTER — Two weeks into his new job, NFIB New York State Director Greg Biryla says he is hearing many of the same concerns that he heard when he was executive director of Unshackle Upstate.

“It’s tax-burden issues, regulatory issues,” he says in a July 13 phone interview with CNYBJ. “New York State is becoming — day by day — a regulatory nightmare.”

Biryla points to state Department of Labor rules that affect thousands of small businesses but never have to be approved by the state Legislature. “It’s happening by Department of Labor fiat,” he contends.

Biryla started his post on June 26 and is working to find a deputy state director. The two of them will be NFIB’s representatives in Albany. Membership, communications, and other matters are handled by staff who may work in New York state, or in nearby states.

While Biryla’s boss is in Washington, D.C., he also meets with an advisory committee of New York business people. “It’s very geographically and industrially diverse,” he says.

On the day of the interview, he met with an advisory committee member in Rochester.

The Flower City has been Biryla’s home, but he is planning to move to the Albany area, where his work will find him frequently at the Statehouse. He also expects to travel extensively, meeting members from Long Island to northern New York and the state’s western reaches.

The average NFIB member has five to seven employees, he explains, and generates annual revenue of less than $600,000. Membership is proportional around the state Biryla says, with members more common in areas where the population is densest. In all, New York has more than 10,000 NFIB members.

Biryla says he doesn’t expect to meet every one of those members right away, but does plan to continue to travel, hearing what concerns members.

NFIB will also pay attention and score government officials on their votes and actions, he says. “NFIB has an endorsement process,” he says. “We will select five to 15 pieces of legislation in both houses and we will score their votes.”

Biryla says he is not yet sure if the NFIB would make an endorsement in this year’s race for governor.