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Chamber of Commerce Annual Member Survey 31 Second Street - 274-7020 Businesses Optimistic About Growth & Jobs Rensselaer Gateway area businesses are very positive about business and jobs expansion in 1999, according to the tenth annual Chamber Member Survey. An overwhelming 73% say employment levels in their firms a will increase, while 20% say job levels will remain stable. Also 83% of Chamber member firms expect their business revenues to grow while 58% see profits increasing. Survey respondents again overwhelmingly listed "Economic Growth" as the most important public policy issue facing the Chamber's Rensselaer Gateway service area. Education, Health Care, Drugs, and Local Taxes -- which have been at or near the top of the survey issues list each year -- again rounded out the top five on the list. "Our Chamber members' confidence in their businesses is as strong and as growing as is our economy," said Chamber Board Chairman Kevin Decker. "Our mmebers also know that economic growth and private enterprise are indispensable ingredients in our Rensselaer Gateway community vitality." Chamber members anticipate that the cost of doing business will continue to rise, as 80% or project operational expenditures to increase again in 1999. Seventy-one percent said they would expand within the Rensselaer Gateway communities or the greater Capital Region, up from last year's 55% and 37% who responded similarly the year before. Only 23% rated that they would not expand in 1999, down from 32% last year and 52% the year prior. Another indicator of confidence in future growth reveals four out of five (approximately 80%) of the responding businesses are planning capital expenditures for 1999. In cooperation with Troy United Ink Corp., a not-for-profit corporation 
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