LI business leaders mixed on Obama's speech

Several Long Island business leaders and executives Wednesday applauded what they called President Barack Obama's "pro-business" State of the Union address Tuesday, but others were disappointed he didn't offer more specifics about his plans to create jobs and help businesses.

"I was very pleased with his emphasis on rebuilding our economy, especially his commitment to an innovation economy" in fields that Long Island is poised to develop, such as clean-energy technology, said Kevin Law, president of the Melville-based Long Island Association, the region's largest business group.

Terri Alessi-Miceli, president of the Hauppauge Industrial Association, said the president "recognized, very clearly, small business and small-business owners as being more important than ever."

Business owners agreed.

Michael Bohlsen, co-owner of the family-run Bohlsen Restaurant Group, said he shares Obama's take that the real people helping with the recovery are the ones in local communities and small businesses. He said government help is needed to knock down the barriers preventing small companies from growing and investing.

"Anything that can help mitigate the tax burdens and the bureaucratic morass we're in will help local communities, and I think he touched upon that," Bohlsen said.

Geared to business

Obama's proposals to increase research and development, including for renewable energy, and to make tax-code changes that ultimately should cut taxes for small business won over Daniel Shybunko, chief executive of GSE Dynamics, a Hauppauge maker of parts for military aircraft, submarines and other systems.

"I think his speech was probably more geared to business than I have ever heard before," Shybunko said. "To me, that's very positive overall."

Some in the Long Island business community, however, were less impressed. New-car dealer Mark Calisi, who retails Chevrolets and several import brands at his Eagle Auto Mall in Riverhead, dismissed the speech as "just more spin and rhetoric from the president," with few specifics.

Barbara Viola, president of the Long Island chapter of the Association of Information Technology Professionals and president of Viotech Solutions Inc., a computer consulting and staffing firm in Farmingdale, said she had hoped for a stronger emphasis on tech jobs and was underwhelmed by the lack of details.

"The speech was a very nice speech, but it was not that concrete," she said. "He didn't really get into . . . how he was actually going to help start-up tech businesses or anything like that."

Others noted Obama's effort at compromise and conciliation.

Robert Bertsch, president of Network Media Holdings Inc., a Port Washington firm that helps match investors with entrepreneurs, said he was heartened that Obama has stepped back from "bashing Wall Street and business."

Michael Ross Cohen, senior vice president of Hewlett-based Greenberg Group, a retail real estate advisory firm, said Obama "realizes that it's going to be a lot of give and take. I like the idea that he's willing to adapt - in regards to his political views and his business views."

Paul Conte, owner of Chevrolet and Cadillac dealerships in Freeport that bear his family name, offered compliments and criticism. Though he said that generally he liked what he heard, he is concerned about Social Security, inheritance taxes and health-care reform.

"He reached out and pushed all the right buttons and said the right things, and maybe he is going to try to cross the aisle and make a conciliatory gesture," Conte said.

Stephanie Finkelstein, owner of The Elegant Setting, a Southampton gift store, said Obama's speech provided much-needed motivation.

"It reminded people that America is a great country and of what we built this country on," she said.

With Keiko Morris