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It looks like the Republicans and Democrats can reach across the aisle.

Some of the time.

On Saturday, a White House Official told the Associated Press that it plans to repeal the 1989 cell phone tax. In fact, the promise of this repeal is included in President Barack Obama’s new budget and spending plan for 2011.   

If you’re like the rest of America, you’re probably scratching your head right now. Cell phone tax?

Perhaps a discussion on “taxable fringe benefits” is mandated before we go any further.  A taxable fringe benefit is considered pay, even if it’s not monetary. The use of a company-owned Blackberry, for example, is a taxable fringe benefit. The employe

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Today I’m going to make a forecast for the three main asset classes for 2010. It will, of course, be wrong.

What good is a forecast, you might ask, if it’s destined to be incorrect? The answer lies in the belief that having some kind of a plan, faulty though it may be, is better than having no plan. If you don’t have a sense of where the market is headed, you won’t be able to adjust when the market fails to go where you predicted it would go, because you won’t know it’s not going where you thought it would, if you get my drift.

To say the same thing in another way, early in my career I was counseled to never not have an opinion on the future direction of the market.

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Not surprisingly, President Obama’s recently released budget proposal for fiscal year 2011 has elicited polarized views from the business community. He’s beginning to stand up to Wall Street and large corporations, at least rhetorically, while promising much-needed relief for small to mid-size businesses (US News). 

Beyond the president’s expected populist stance, however, are a few arguably substantive budget proposals for Main Street:

$30 Billion for Small Business Loans (Reuters): The cash, from repaid TARP bank bailout funds, would be funneled into small- and medium-sized banks with assets under $10 billion. Incentives 

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The Fulton County Regional Chamber of Commerce & Industry has organized a breakfast meeting with the mayors of Johnstown and Gloversville.

The event, which will feature Johnstown Mayor Sarah Slingerland and Gloversville Mayor Dayton King, will be held Feb. 10 at the Hamilton-Fulton-Montgomery BOCES in Johnstown. It will begin at 8 a.m.

Tickets are $20 for chamber members and $25 for non-members.  Call 725-0641 to make a reservation.

A reader asks:

I have a business idea. To open a new art and design gallery. I can see how it looks, but the main problem is, I have no idea how to make it happen.

Starting an art gallery is not something I’ve ever done, or ever considered doing. There are two good reasons for this: firstly I know very little about art; secondly I know absolutely nothing about this industry. I suspect anyone asking me for advice on how to go about opening an art gallery probably knows even less, so my advice is simple: don’t do it.

If you really, really want to start an art gallery then your first step should be to get some experience working in an art gallery and to become an expert in the type of art you wish to sell. Not

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