PUBLIC POLICY
POSITION STATEMENTS
2010-2011
GREAT FALLS AREA CHAMBER OF COMMERCE
100 First Avenue North
Great Falls, MT 59401
Ph: (406) 761-4434
Fax: (406) 761-6129
E-mail: talfreyf@greatfallschamber.org
Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce
Public Policy
Position Statements
2010-2011
Table of Contents
Introduction……………………………………………………………..………… 3
Economic Development…………………………………………………………4
Education………………………………….……………………………………… 5
Health care…………………………………………………………………………6
Natural Resources, Energy and the Environment…….……………………7
Taxation and Tax Reform……………………………………………………….8
Transportation and Land Use………………………………………………….9
Workers’ Compensation………………………………………………………..10
Active Advocacy Positions…………………………………………………...................................…11
INTRODUCTION & PURPOSE
In order to help Great Falls become the most business friendly city in Montana, the Great Falls Area Chamber of Commerce (“Chamber”) has prepared the following position statements on several issues that directly affect or impact our membership. As requested by the membership, the Chamber will focus its advocacy efforts on issues of economic development, education, health care, tax policy, natural resources development, workers’ compensation, energy, transportation and land use.
The position statements contained herein are designed in part to give guidance to local, state and federal lobbying efforts. In addition, the position statements are issued to direct the Chamber in its efforts to monitor activities by city and county government. Other issues of concern to the membership may arise in the coming months. With the guidance of the position statements and input of the members, your Chamber will endeavor to address those issues as is necessary and to ensure that the business community is always well-represented.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Chamber will play a role along with other organizations in supporting economic development in the community and surrounding region. We will provide continued support for efforts by the state Department of Commerce and other relevant entities to promote economic growth in our city and state. We expect to be an aggressive advocate for business and economic development. Therefore, the Chamber will support the following concepts, policies, programs and initiatives on behalf of its members:
- Encouraging our city and county governments to support economic development in our region;
- The research and development of agricultural product value-added plants and processes;
- Legislation and initiatives that provide work force training, retraining, development, and apprenticeship programs;
- Policies and programs leveraging Coal Tax monies for economic development;
- The development of a competitive, high tech telecommunications infrastructure for Montana.
- Maintaining and expanding Malmstrom Air Force Base, the Montana Air National Guard, and other defense and homeland security facilities and missions in our community. The jobs these employers provide, and the personal contributions of their people to our community, add significantly to Great Falls’ quality of life.
- The maintenance of state and local/regional economic development agencies.
- Policies and regulations designed to maintain and expand electricity generation and distribution for export and to support local development.
EDUCATION
The Chamber always has recognized that a strong education system and a strong local economy go hand in hand. We therefore support the following on behalf of our local schools:
(1) Adequate Funding: We support adequate, cost-based funding of a strong system of K-12 and higher education that provides essential services without unduly burdening taxpayers, including businesses. We also support sufficient state funding to allow tuition rates at MSU- Great Falls to remain competitive with other two-year institutions located in surrounding states and affordable to students in the community and region.
(2) Stable Funding: We support funding to allow school boards to design and implement long-range plans that make the wisest and best use of taxpayer dollars.
(3) Flexible Funding: School funding must provide flexibility that allows spending decisions to be made by locally elected school boards.
(4) Sustainable Energy Investments: It is vital that school districts be supported in moving to develop sustainable energy systems to mitigate increasing costs.
(5) Special Education: We endorse continued support for the Montana School for the Deaf and the Blind.
(6) Technology: We support, within a reasonable cost structure, efforts to use new technologies to make higher education more accessible.
(7) Adaptability: We support efforts to help state two- and four-year higher education institutions adapt existing programs and introduce new ones to meet the changing work force needs of their surrounding markets.
(8) Improved Access to Four-Year and Graduate Education: We support the expansion of public four-year and graduate higher education in Great Falls to meet the economic and workforce needs of the community. We also endorse efforts to improve coordination and use of higher education resources within the state and region so they are equitably distributed and highly effective in meeting the needs of the Greater Great Falls area.
HEALTH CARE
Health care remains a matter of prime concern to our membership. In addition to developing private sector initiatives to control the rising cost of health care to our members and their employees, the Chamber will monitor public policies that have an impact on the cost of care. To that end, we support the following ideas and proposals:
(1) The continuation of tax credits to encourage private, philanthropic support for our health care institutions.
(2) Tobacco lawsuit revenue generally should be used for health care or prevention programs.
(3) Appropriate funding for the activities conducted by the McLaughlin Research Institute.
NATURAL RESOURCES, ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT
The Chamber supports policies calculated to promote responsible development of our resources and expansion of our economy. The Chamber also supports legal protection of the natural environment such that Montana continues to be a clean, healthful and inspirational place to live, work and raise a family. However, we also believe environmental policies must be consistent with the principles of our private property-based, free market economic system. The Chamber will continue to promote policies and initiatives that promise an affordable, stable supply of energy, without which continued economic development in the community will be adversely impacted. Accordingly, the Chamber supports:
(1) The construction of the proposed Highwood Generating Station northeast of Great Falls and the Montana-Alberta Tie Line Project, and similar projects.
(2) Efforts to responsibly develop the energy resources on Montana State Trust Lands. We recognize that such development provides the dual benefit of expanding our state’s energy sector while creating a higher return from these state lands, which benefits Montana schools and taxpayers.
(3) Policies and regulations designed to maintain and expand electrical generation and distribution for export and to support local development.
TAXATION AND TAX REFORM
Tax policy has been a major focus of the Chamber in prior years and will remain so during the upcoming legislative session. The best tax policy is one that is broad-based and fairly administered. To that end, we support the following policies and proposals:
(1) Business Equipment Tax: further reducing and eventually eliminating the business equipment tax, as necessary to create a competitive economic environment.
(2) Property Tax: Property taxes should be based on impartially assessed values determined within an assessment system that provides current and consistent property evaluation, and is applied uniformly to Montana’s citizens.
(3) Income Tax: Maintain the reforms adopted by the 2003 Montana Legislature.
(4) Sales Tax: a statewide general sales tax of up to 4% (constitutional cap) as an essential step toward a balanced tax structure. A properly designed general sales tax can tap into the large number of visitors to our state, who use Montana services, and thereby ease the burden of Montana taxpayers, while leveling the field in the interest of economic development and providing needed revenues for essential state services, including education.
TRANSPORTATION AND LAND USE
Recognizing that transportation and land-use decisions are critical to building and maintaining a stable economy for Great Falls and the surrounding region, the Chamber supports the following initiatives:
(1) Improvement of the highway between Great Falls and Billings as a means of achieving access to the Camino Real and Canamex international trade corridors, improving our city’s link to commerce.
(2) Updating the current Great Falls Area Transportation Plan.
(3) Additional means of access and infrastructure improvement to the Great Falls International Airport in order to realize the full potential of the airport as an air freight hub and air/rail/highway terminal.
(4) Provision of adequate rest stops, information centers, and directional signage to ensure travelers’ safety and reasonable comfort, year-round.
(5) Maintaining a viable rail transportation system, with rates that are competitive with similarly situated states and affordable to users.
(6) The development of a fully functioning transload rail facility to improve inbound and outbound rail shipping services.
(7) Implementation of the Missouri River Urban Corridor Plan adopted by the Great Falls City Commission and the Cascade County Commission.
(8) Re-establishment of the Great Falls-to-Helena rail line as an active, useful and productive carrier of commerce; we support only those efforts that maintain the rail bed as a coherent whole, and we do not support proposals that may result in break up of the property and prevent ultimate restoration of the line.
(9) Land use, zoning and building regulations and processes that are reasonable and facilitate private sector development and business growth in our community.
WORKERS’ COMPENSATION
The Chamber supports the following principles in any upcoming changes or reforms in the state’s workers’ compensation and occupational disease laws, to ensure a proper balance between the needs of injured workers and the needs of our local business membership:
(1) Continuation and enhancement of early return-to-work and vocational rehabilitation policies and programs to support injured workers in efforts to return to the labor force.
(2) Ongoing support for job safety training and initiatives.
(3) Avoidance of any changes that may substantially increase premium costs to local employers.
(4) Support for changes that may decrease premium costs to local employers.
(5) Fair and timely reimbursement of health care providers for all services performed.
(6) Maintaining effective fraud investigation, identification and prosecution policies.
Active Business Advocacy Positions
- Support for the Highwood electricity generation plant
- Support for the Montana – Alberta Tie Line project
- Support for the responsible development of coal reserves from the Otter Creek School Trust property
- Support for legislative redistricting that keeps neighborhoods intact and maintains a population variance of no greater than 1%
- Support for funding for the Agri-Tech Industrial Park
- Support retaining monthly Planning Commission meeting
Recent Positions and Outcomes
- Support for repeal of City Smoking ordinance in order to align with state law – Passed by City Commission
- Support for the Great Falls School District 2010 levy request – Passed by voters
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