The Daily Record News Briefs: July 16, 2008

State: IBM to make investment

Gov. David A. Paterson announced Tuesday significant new investments by IBM and New York State, accelerating New York's leadership in nanotechnology research and development and creating up to 1,000 new high-tech jobs Upstate, according to a release from Paterson's office.

The state will provide up to $140 million in economic development grants, leveraging more than a 10-to-one private investment of $1.5 billion from IBM.

The investment will go toward three components of a comprehensive project, supporting the nanotechnology chip computer activities of IBM -- the expansion of IBM's operations at the College of Nanoscale Science and Engineering at the University at Albany (Albany NanoTech), the creation of a new semiconductor packaging research and development center at a to-be-determined site Upstate and an upgrade to IBM's East Fishkill facility in Dutchess County.

"The positive effects of this critical investment will be felt for a generation, and will be the catalyst for other high tech business development throughout Upstate," Paterson said.

Bonadio Group announces merger

The Bonadio Group announced Tuesday that it has merged with Dorgman-Robbie CPAs and its affiliated companies, collectively known as The DR Group, an accounting, business and financial consulting firm based in Albany.

The merger creates a firm with annual revenues of nearly $45 million, according to a release from Bonadio.

"The move into the ALbany market is critical to our overall strategy of growing our presence in the upstate region," Thomas F. Bonadio, managing partner, said. "Our goal was to find a firm with an outstanding reputation and a culture with similar values and client service philosophy."

The combined company will operate under The Bonadio Group name and will be located in the existing DR Group's offices in Albany. As a result of the merger, more than 70 employees, including 21 CPAs, have joined The Bonadio Group, increasing the company's employee base to more than 325 throughout Upstate. Six partners will join The Bonadio Group as part of the merger.

Xerox joins IORG

Xerox Corp. recently signed on as a founding corporate member of the Information Overload Research Group, a think tank dedicated to boosting workplace productivity by fighting information overload.

Xerox joins Microsoft, Intel, IBM and others who pledged to find ways to manage the flood of electronic information gushing each day from cell phones, e-mail, instant messages and billions of printed pages worldwide.

According to Basex, a knowledge economy research firm, unnecessary interruptions and the time required to return to a task cost the U.S. economy $650 billion annually and represents 28 percent of a knowledge worker' day.

Founded this year, IORG's mission is to build awareness of the world's challenges to productivity, to conduct research, help define best practices, contribute to the creation of solutions and resources, offer guidance and facilitation and help make the business case for fighting information overload.

For more information visit www.iorgforum.com.

Housing awareness campaign underway

New York State Division of Housing and Community Renewal (DHCR) Commissioner Deborah VanAmerongen on Tuesday announced a statewide public service announcement campaign to promote continued development of affordable housing in communities throughout New York.

The PSAs are part of a larger campaign, "Affordable Housing Works," which touts attractive and high quality affordable housing developments statewide.

The PSAs began airing Monday on broadcast television stations and radio stations. The ads will run for four weeks and feature filmmaker and green affordable housing advocate Edward Norton, former NFL football player and community developer Tiki Barber and former Major League Baseball player and affordable housing developer Mo Vaughn. Additional ads will run in Spanish.

"Affordable housing is critical for the stability of our communities," Gov. David A. Paterson said. "It makes our communities stronger, businesses healthier and neighborhoods more diverse by providing our hard working families and senior citizens with viable housing options."

Construction budgets suffering

Ken Simonson, chief economist for The Associated General Contractors of America (AGC) said Tuesday that "surging prices for diesel fuel, asphalt, steel and other materials are clobbering construction budgets."

His comments came on the heels of a Bureau of Labor Statistics report on the producer price index (PPI) for June.

The PPI for inputs to construction industries -- materials used in all types of construction plus items consumed by contractors, such as diesel fuel -- surged 10.4 percent in the past 12 months. The index for highway and street construction leaped 18.9 percent.

"Bad as those figures sound, the increases in asphalt and steel costs have been even worse since these prices were collected in mid- June," Simonson said. "In the first two weeks of July, asphalt prices have jumped by 40 percent in several parts of the country. Prices for rebar -- steel used to reinforce concrete in highways, bridges and buildings -- soared $200 per ton."