June 2018 – Philosophy, Law and Politics

Is America Ready, Willing and Able for True Small Business Innovation, For-Profit and Not-for-Profit?

Perhaps, those state governments which have not, and even possibly Congress, should consider new legislation to provide funding and guidance to small businesses. Measures pending in both the New York Assembly (A6169) and Senate (S7546) permit the New York State Empire Development Corporation to designate a list of colleges, universities, state and national government laboratories, and public research institutes that may partner with small businesses and provide research and development guidance as the small businesses create innovative projects and services for increased employment and economic growth, funded, in part, by the Empire Development Corporation. The research and development partners have adequate resources and facilities and agree to accept funding vouchers issued to small businesses by the Empire Development Corporation in payment for their services. The amount of the voucher varies depending upon the innovativeness of the project proposed by the small business.

Each small business submits an application describing its project which is reviewed by a committee appointed by the Empire Development Corporation. This committee consists of persons in higher education, science and technology, and business. Approval of an application is determined by the project’s innovativeness, technical feasibility, commercial viability and creation of employment. A small business may, but is not required to, name its chosen research and development partner in its application. For an approved project, a small business is issued a voucher by the Empire Development Corporation in an amount up to $10,000. Or, up to $50,000, if the project is deemed highly innovative in its creation of substantial economic growth and job development in an emerging technology field. Funding does require a dollar for dollar match by the approved small business.

Such a program would permit academic, not-for-profit and governmental research organizations to glean the type of entrepreneurial enterprises suitable for their respective marketplace. And, it would facilitate a continuation of small businesses of custom and tradition within local communities as they continue generational family businesses in an era of increasingly complex technology. America’s research organizations are on the forefront of social and academic development. They are comprised of academics and researchers from a variety of countries, disciplines and heritages. They are multicultural and multifaith. A competitive, marketplace-based funding of small businesses permits small businesses to collaborate with research and development partners historically beyond them for want of both time and resources.

In the philosophical thought of José Ortega y Gasset, phenomenology, as a study of experience, requires that we look beyond our mere conceptual perception of an act or object as fact, such as a model of a good, product or service. We must focus upon the act or object or fact as it exists in living form, as a living act or object or fact. The transition of a model good, product or service of a small business into a final, finished good, product or service requires its conversion into an extant, living form. The specialized understandings of America’s researchers and developers, only, enable such a transformation, and an act of collaborative performance in America is a good thing!

Lori Gayle Nuckolls, Esq.

Is the Mandatory Reporting of Convictions to Relevant Agencies Necessary for Fairness and Justice in Our Courts?

Adequate diligence and complete information are necessary for fair and sound decisions by judges, in both civil and criminal matters. Might States benefit from an enhanced requirement that criminal convictions of licensed professionals, for both lesser and more severe offenses, be reported to the State agency governing the defendant’s profession?

A measure before the New York State Legislature, Assembly (A11057-A) and Senate (S8909-A), would amend the New York education law to require reporting to the governing New York State Education Department the criminal convictions and determinations of professional misconduct of persons licensed by the Education Department. The District Attorney for each county within the State of New York would be required to report each conviction of a licensee to the Professional Conduct Officer of the Education Department. The licensee is similarly bound by an obligation of self-reporting. The licensee must self-report criminal convictions to the Education Department. The licensee is also required to report determinations of professional misconduct to the Education Department, regardless of jurisdiction.

A statutory system of fair reporting and due information provides those governed, such as those licensed by the New York Education Department, with both an incentive for proper professional conduct and a deterrence of nonprofessional conduct, before any ill deed is done. Professional codes provide learning within one’s professional disciple throughout one’s career, long after one’s formal academic training. And, a system of fair reporting insures that employers and the courts make fair, adequate and just determinations.

In founding the first American newspaper, Publick Occurrences, first sold in Boston on September 25, 1960, Benjamin Harris stated in his prospectus:

“That something may be done toward the Curing, or at least the Charming of that Spirit of Lying, which prevails amongst us, wherefore nothing shall be entered, but what we have reason to believe is true, repairing to the best fountains for our Information. And when there appears any material mistake in anything that is collected, it shall be corrected in the next. Moreover, the Publisher of these Occurrences is willing to engage, that whereas, there are many False Reports, maliciously made, and spread among us, if any well-minded person will be at the pains to trace any such false Report, so far as to find out and Convict the First Raiser of it, he will in this Paper (unless just Advice be given to the contrary) expose the Name of such Person, as A malicious Raiser of a false Report. It is suppos’d that none will dislike this Proposal, but such as intend to be guilty of so villainous a Crime.”

Neither the public nor the courts benefit from acting upon an absence of information. And, no one subject to a mandatory reporting requirement benefits if deprived of the rehabilitative purpose of ostensibly putative measures by inadequate information.

Lori Gayle Nuckolls, Esq.