Ask businesses about their biggest challenges and how a second-term Bush administration can address them, and many answers are similar: do something about spiraling health care and energy costs, push through tort reform and continue to embrace free trade.

	Daniel Marsula, Post-Gazette Click photo for larger image. This story was written and compiled by Post-Gazette staff writers Len Boselovic, Dan Fitzpatrick, Joyce Gannon, Pamela Gaynor, Elwin Green, Don Hammonds, Steve Massey, Jim McKay, Patricia Sabatini and Corilyn Shropshire.

Then, too, there is corporate America's main request: No surprises. Even an unpopular tax or regulatory policy is sometimes preferable to one that changes every year or two, undermining the ability to plan long-term.

So it was with some relief that many business leaders greeted President Bush's re-election, not only for his pro-growth agenda of tax cuts, regulatory reforms and energy independence. Companies are getting someone they know and someone unlikely to stir things up by making unexpected changes and unforeseen demands.

The Post-Gazette business staff surveyed a range of companies in industries that call the region home, from steel and chemicals to banks, hospitals, high technology and transportation. Here's what they had to say about the next four years.

Financial services

J. Christopher Donahue, president and CEO of Downtown money manager Federated Investors, believes prospects for privatizing a portion of Social Security increased with the election of Bush. Such a move would be "a great win for our industry," he said.

Donahue also rates as important making temporary tax cuts permanent or enhancing them further by lowering marginal rates. That includes preserving the more favorable treatment of dividends or lowering taxes of the quarterly payouts even more, he said. Coincidentally, Federated has increased its dividend four times in the last 18 months, more than doubling it.

While Federated's bond analysts worry about the record federal budget deficit and what it will do to interest rates, Donahue believes the deficit can be managed with economic growth fueled by tax policy and confidence in the economy. That will "make the whole machinery grow bigger, better, faster," he said.

Thomas W. Golonski, president, chairman and CEO of National City Bank of Pennsylvania, wants more tax relief because it would benefit small-business customers. "Small business continues to be the engine that drives our economy" in Western Pennsylvania, he said.

Dollar Bank CEO Stephen Hansen isn't as concerned about tax cuts and financial issues as he is about education. He believes "the most important issue confronting the financial services industry is the capacity of the school system to provide the basic education that the industry will require of its future employees."

Hansen said he understands the federal government has a limited role to play in local schools. But he is encouraged that Bush has demonstrated an ability to work in bipartisan ways to improve the performance and skills learned in schools and hopes the administration continues with this focus the next four years.

Chemicals

Skyrocketing health-care costs are among the most significant concerns at Koppers Inc., the Downtown-based company that makes chemicals, railroad products and utility poles, while high energy prices are on the minds of Nova Chemicals.

"That's a key legislative issue for us," said Stephanie Franken, spokeswoman for Nova Chemicals, the Canadian-based company with a management operations center in Moon. "We feel we would have been able to work well with either administration."

Other local chemical concerns also are worried about high and volatile prices for raw materials used in chemical making and called on the Bush administration to work with Congress, regulators, energy producers and consumers and global trading partners for more stability.

Energy

Westinghouse Electric Co. wants Bush to do more to promote the use of nuclear energy in other countries, particularly China, which is about to seek bids for nuclear plants, as well as in the United States, where no new plant has been ordered since 1978. Vice President Dick Cheney promoted Westinghouse specifically during a visit last spring to China.

"President Bush and his administration have been supportive of nuclear power and can continue to play a substantial role in fostering the re-emergence of this non-polluting, economically competitive energy source," said Steve Tritch, president and chief executive officer of Monroeville-based Westinghouse, a division of Britain's BNFL.

J. Brett Harvey, CEO at Consol Energy, a coal and natural gas producer in Upper St. Clair, wants the administration to offer utilities regulatory certainty about pollution controls so that they can go ahead and install scrubbers that would promote the use of eastern coal.

Bush "tried this in the first term but was unsuccessful for political reasons, but I think in the second term, he will give utilities [the necessary assurances] to put basic available technology on power plants. And that really is a plus for eastern coal, of which we are the big player."

A second issue for 140-year-old Consol is the average age of its 6,500 miners, which is 50 or older. It will soon need to replace these workers, so Harvey would like to see the U.S. Mine Safety and Health Administration offer safety training and community colleges push more skills needed in the mines, which require the operation of technical machinery.

"These are all good jobs," Harvey said. "You'll see a lot of these rural communities where coal people grew up, come back as we hire young people ... Think about this. In the next 10 years, 4,000 of the 6,500 will be replaced by someone."

Engineering

Michael Baker Corp. President and CEO Donald P. Fusilli, Jr., hopes Bush's second term will produce legislation that would give impetus to the Moon company's two businesses: engineering and energy services.

On the energy front, he seeks passage of an energy bill that would promote more domestic exploration and drilling.

On the engineering front, Fusilli would like to see permanent authorization of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, a major source of funding for transportation projects that require the services of Baker and other engineering firms. Hours before current stopgap funding was to expire Sept. 30, Congress approved a short-term measure providing $24.5 billion for eight months for roads, bridges and transit work.

A longer-term permanent commitment is needed, Fusilli says. "There have been short-term extensions. We believe that's delayed significant opportunities for infrastructure improvements," he said, adding that he believes there's a better chance of Congress putting the program on a more solid basis "with the existing administration than with [former Democratic candidate John] Kerry."

Health care

West Penn Allegheny Health System President and CEO Jerry J. Fedele believes tort reform is vital.

"Many doctors leave the commonwealth because of malpractice insurance costs. It requires you to recruit new doctors in and that adds to costs," he said. He is encouraged that Bush has been a strong advocate for tort reform and is optimistic the president and a Republican-controlled Congress will enact legislation ''that will aid us in the future."

But Fedele also fears that the mounting budget deficit may lead to cuts in the Medicare program. Such changes would further erode hospitals' already thin margins and impact their ability to "to invest and reinvest in facilities and programs," Fedele said.

Dr. Kenneth Melani, president and CEO of the region's dominant health insurer, Highmark Inc., believes rising costs and the rising number of uninsured remain the health care industry's biggest issues. He expects the Bush administration will continue to expand prescription drug availability under Medicare and to seek private-sector solutions through such programs as health savings accounts, which combine high deductible insurance with tax-free savings accounts for medical services.

High technology

Doros Platika, CEO of the Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse, hopes that the Bush administration continues its drive to reduce capital gains taxes, making investment dollars more available for biotechnology research and ventures.

Lower capital gains taxes "increases our investors' willingness to invest in the company," said Eric Close, CEO of RedZone Robotics. "If the taxes were higher -- they may not invest."

Platika would like to see the Bush administration speed Food and Drug Administration approval of gene therapies and other biotech advances and balance the needs of controlling Medicare costs with the industry's need for adequate payments for new therapies.

Manufacturing

Even though Bush "has a greater understanding of the steel industry than any other president in recent history," U.S. Steel President and CEO John P. Surma believes manufacturing remains in crisis.

"The future of manufacturing will be affected by how the president deals with taxes, health care and tort reform in his second term," Surma said. "Internationally, we remain concerned about the increasing trade deficit and currency manipulation by China and Asian countries. Finally, strong enforcement of U.S. trade laws remains an absolutely critical priority for the steel industry and all of the U.S."

At Curtiss-Wright Electro Mechanical Corp., the Cheswick maker of large pumps and motors for ships and nuclear plants, the hope is that Bush will boost the number of ships for the Navy, which fell to six in the 2005 budget year from nine previously.

Terri Marts, vice president and general manager of the former Westinghouse facility, also is hopeful that there will be an increases in nuclear energy operations globally and in deep sea oil exploration that use its pumps. "We see this administration as being a positive influence on these issues, and ... on strengthening the manufacturing base in the United States," Marts said."

Small business

Local developers are would like to see Bush's tax cuts and new incentives for home building spur more construction and a rebound in the region's flat commercial markets.

For local auto dealers, the main issue is growth in the economy and in jobs. Whatever is done to pick that up locally will be good for their business, which relies on people being willing to spend.

"We are very much tied into how well everybody else is doing," said Ron Pusic, vice president of administration for the Pittsburgh Automobile Trade Association. "If the public is doing well financially and working, that's good for the auto business.

"I don't think we have any particular legislative agenda," Pusci added. ''When the economy is strong, it brings business along with it. And when people have money in their pockets, they're shopping, and that's good for the auto industry."

For all small businesses, the overriding concern remains health-care costs, said Cliff Shannon, executive director SMC Business Councils, a small business lobby. "I would say health-care costs are depressing profits or eliminating them, they're depressing employee wages, they're restraining consideration of other employee benefits and they're retarding hiring."

"Part of what the administration is going to do is already evident and that is through health savings accounts that already have been made available and through individual tax credits that have been proposed," said Shannon, adding that he was not certain the administration's approach would change behavior.

Transportation

Union Switch & Signal Corp., the maker of railroad products that has a major research facility in Hazelwood, would like to see the Transportation Equity Act receive permanent funding, freeing up projects vital to the firm's future.

"Basically, we've had a band-aid on this thing for over a year, and we would like to see that finally reauthorized and have a long-term bill in place similar to what they did several years ago," said Ken Burk, president and CEO of Union Switch.

Burk also would like the Federal Railroad Administration to approve the introduction of new technology on U.S. freight railroads that would permit smaller crews to operate trains. He said one engineer could safely operate a freight train equipped with Union Switch & Signal controls.

The company has sold driverless technology to Copenhagen's new Metro system and would benefit from the introduction of similar technology on freight lines here. "The technology already exists," Burk said. "Getting approval from ... the administration would be a nice breakthrough."

While bankrupt US Airways is not looking to the government for more help than it already has received as it tries to restructure, it would like the administration and Congress to think more broadly about the "endless stream of taxes and fees" on airlines and their customers "because the burden is contributing to the industry's financial problems," CEO Bruce Lakefield said.