When he delivers his first State of the State address on Wednesday, Eliot Spitzer will already be two days overdue on the promise of reform that propelled the state’s new governor to a 70 percent victory last fall: “Day One: Everything Changes.”

Businesses nationwide are expected to increase spending on information technology and hire more professionals in the new year. Yet many college students remain reluctant to pursue IT careers, convinced that the jobs they would hold will eventually be outsourced overseas.

George E. Pataki won office in 1994 by promising to loosen the stranglehold of taxes that had long choked statewide business activity, as well as by promising a more energetic economic development effort better able to keep businesses and their jobs from fleeing Westchester to Connecticut.

Standard & Poors Rating Services has lowered its rating on the village of Harrison’s general obligation (GO) bonds from AAA to AA+.

A leading analyst group has downgraded Lawrence Hospital’s bond rating from A- to BBB+.

In 2005, online retailers saw a 23 percent increase in sales, and growth through the 2006 holiday season is expected to rise another 22 percent.