Public Affairs Issues
Local
An agenda for the community. SPACC took the lead in creating a coalition of businesses, public entities and other community organizations to develop a community-wide legislative agenda. This agenda focuses on developing and maintaining crucial infrastructure that will benefit the business community and fully funding those projects that will get people back to work immediately.
Our joint agenda includes support for these capital improvements:
$8.5 million Central Corridor
$9 million Union Depot
$10 million high speed rail
$1 million to study Rush Line
$1 million to study an I-94 Corridor
The Chamber also supports debt forgiveness for the Xcel Energy Arena, which would allow Saint Paul to move forward with a Phase I expansion of the Minnesota Event District.
Advocating for business needs at the local level. We will continue to work with local governments to ensure prudent use of taxpayer dollars and to protect against regulations that negatively impact business. Specific policy proposals we’ll watch include:
unrealistic restrictions on dynamic display signs
municipally-developed fiber-optics
redevelopment proposals
requiring new construction to meet “green” standards
We oppose laws that place unnecessary restrictions on commerce without proven benefits to the community.
State
As a member of the Minnesota Chamber Federation, we support the following statewide policies:
Workforce: Ensure that businesses have an adequate supply of skilled workers to compete in today’s global economy by advancing reforms in the K-12 public education system. This includes focus in three areas: Closing the achievement gap, educating our students to compete against the rest of the world, and supporting measures that provide for greater fiscal accountability
Nuclear Energy: Change the existing state law so nuclear power is an option for generating additional and necessary base-load power.
Climate Change: Legislation should be addressed on the national and international levels. State lawmakers should not pass a state or regional cap-and-trade policy due to the negative economic impact on businesses and families, and the likelihood that a state-specific program will not solve nor reduce the problem.
Budget: Balance the state budget by restructuring government’s delivery of essential programs and services without raising taxes.
Transportation: We support a balanced transportation system that contributes to the economic development of the east metro area and increase the ability of business to attract and retain employees. To that end, we are creating a coalition of business and other community organizations to ensure that development of new corridors provide sound return on investment to the region.