A strong economy with better paying jobs is necessary to improve the standard of living, provide economic security for all, and combat social problems like unemployment, poverty and crime. A strong economy provides the tax base needed to support education, protect the environment, build infrastructure and support the needy. The best of these measures seek to encourage entrepreneurs to create jobs, help attract and retain capable workers and encourage more effective and efficient government services. The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce supports a wide variety of initiatives that build stronger local, state and national economies including:
I) Taxation and Government Spending
Government should be held to the highest standard of responsibility in the use of taxpayer dollars. The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce will promote efforts to reduce the state and local tax burden, as well as encourage economic growth and development to expand the tax base ensuring a high quality of life in Eau Claire.
• State Priorities
1. Control property taxes.
2. Do not increase Wisconsin’s capital gains tax to encourage business investment and resulting job creation.
3. Continue to look for ways to reduce wasteful spending and limit increases in state spending
4. Encourage balanced budgeting
• Adherence to Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP)
• Fund budget-stabilization fund to deal with fluctuating revenues
• Federal Priorities
1. Promote efforts to extend or make permanent the Federal tax cuts
2. Repeal or substantially reform the alternative minimum tax (AMT)
3. Preserve reduced tax rates on capital gains and dividend income
4. Ensure faster cost recovery of capital investment
5. Reduce corporate income tax rates
6. Advance simplification and ease of compliance with the Internal Revenue Code
II) Health Care
The rising cost of health care is a significant factor in the ability of businesses to compete in the world marketplace and attract the best workforce. Cost containment efforts should be focused on engaging consumers in health care purchasing decisions, improving quality, increasing benefit flexibility and choices, minimizing cost shifting, reforming medical malpractice liability and improved information technology.
• State Priorities
1. Align state tax deductibility for health savings accounts with federal tax code.
2. Address Medicaid reimbursement shortfalls.
3. Tax credits for workplace wellness programs.
4. Improve the collection and analysis of health care outcome data, make quality transparent and encourage consumers, business purchasers, and insurance companies to direct resources to providers who demonstrate a commitment to patient safety, improving quality, and reducing unnecessary or inappropriate treatment.
• Federal Priorities
1. Continue to support bipartisan legislation encouraging widespread adoption of Health IT and work to include in it a national standard for E-prescribing, a paperless approach that would reduce administration costs and human errors in prescribing and dispensing prescriptions.
2. Support linking physician Medicare reimbursements to performance-driven benchmarks and adherence to best practices. Physician reimbursement rates currently are set by a sustainable growth rate formula that needs comprehensive reform.
3. Support stand-alone legislation that offers tax credits for employer-sponsored workplace wellness programs for employees.
4. Support changes in Health Savings Accounts to make them more flexible and appealing to consumers and plan sponsors.
5. Support legislation that gives small businesses and individuals the option to purchase health benefits with the same tax advantages that large businesses have, pool together to leverage purchasing power, participate in benefits plans that are not burdened with costly state mandates, and permit the owners of small businesses to participate in their companies’ benefits plan.
6. Enact medical liability reform to reduce lawsuit abuse
III) Education
A world-class educational system is essential for businesses to remain competitive in a global economy. The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce believes that adequate funding, measurement of education outcomes, improvement of accountability, encouragement of innovation and rewards for excellence are all important components of any effort to improve quality education from kindergarten to college.
• State Priorities
1. Promote teacher competency; authorize school districts to utilize teacher competency evaluations for purposes of continuing employment and enhancing compensation.
2. Secure funding for the UW – Stout Discovery Center in the 2009-11 budget
3. Appropriate money to replace the obsolete Brewer Hall and Campus School at UW-Eau Claire
4. Back the funding for CVTC’s New Generation Workforce Initiative to meet future workforce needs in the Chippewa Valley.
5. Focus resources to develop strengths in science, technology, engineering and math
6. Allow greater autonomy for UW campuses, primarily to set enrollment and tuition levels
7. Support tax incentives to encourage employer sponsored education and training
8. Seek to expand the public/private school choice program to include local school districts, allowing parents to select either a public or private, sectarian or nonsectarian, school for their children to attend.
• Federal Priorities
1. Change training, payment, and evaluation of teachers – pay for performance and incentive pay
2. Expand educational options for students, e.g. early enrollment of high school students in college-level courses, online learning programs, charter schools, etc.
3. Increase focus on Science, engineering, technology and math
4. Strengthen and reauthorize No child Left Behind Act to help keep schools accountable in educating
IV) Economic Development
The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce supports and will aggressively advocate for economic development initiatives that will make area businesses stronger, healthier and more prosperous.
• State Priorities
1. Increase angel and venture capital investment
2. Promote consolidation of existing tax credits to allow easy access to the credits to help foster job creation, capital investment and expansion.
3. Expand creditable/eligible activities of the tax credit program
4. Make tax credits portable
5. Increase Wisconsin’s competitiveness by limiting joint and several liability and frivolous lawsuits
6. Include tax credits for employers to help pay for tuition for employees
7. Eliminate prevailing wage and wage lien mandates
• Federal Priorities
1. Do not enact the Employee Free Choice Act
2. Temporary investment tax credit to promote investment
3. Temporarily allow foreign subsidiary earnings of U.S. companies to be brought back at a reduced rate
4. Temporarily reduce borrower and lending fees for small business lending programs
5. Increase the government-guaranteed percentage for some small business loans
V) Infrastructure/Transportation
The Eau Claire Area Chamber of Commerce will support efforts to strengthen our community’s infrastructure. This will enhance our ability to attract and retain quality businesses, which will lead to improved job opportunities, wages, and quality of life in the Greater Eau Claire Area.
Recognizing the importance of a quality, economical transportation system is vital to business, including airports, rail systems, mass transit and highways. The Chamber will support efforts to maintain and improve transportation into, out of, and within the area.
• State Priorities
1. Use state gas tax and vehicle registration funds exclusively for transportation.
2. Broaden the Base of Transportation Funding.
3. Expand Transportation Infrastructure, focus scarce resources on needed highway capacity expansion projects to accommodate the growing transportation needs of the Wisconsin economy, such as the potential for the expansion of I-94 from Eau Claire to Hudson.
4. Ensure the inclusion of future intercity passenger rail service for Eau Claire in state transportation plans.
5. Support an appropriate structure for local governments to cooperate in the creation of Regional Transportation Authorities (RTAs) to plan, fund and administer regional transportation systems, while ensuring that taxpayer interests are protected.
• Federal Priorities
1. Use stimulus money to fix the myriad of infrastructure problems and adequately fund future upgrades.
VI) – Energy - New
Energy powers our economy and our lives.
Without access to affordable and reliable supplies of energy in the United States, U.S. businesses are forced to move elsewhere, taking U.S. jobs and support for the economy with them and impacting our global competitiveness.
• State Priorities
1. Provide incentives to increase use of renewable fuels and for businesses for energy efficiency
2. Tax credits, grants or other incentives to encourage research and development in clean energy technology
3. Eliminate the moratorium on nuclear power plants and consider them as an option
• Federal Priorities
1. Increase investment in clean coal technology
2. Expansion of nuclear energy, research and development in wind, solar and other renewable energy
3. Environment issues must be answered with commonsense solutions. Government should not mandate what technology cannot deliver
4. Provide and promote incentives for business energy efficiency across all sectors
5. Reduce burdensome regulations that discourage investment and imperil competitiveness
VII) – Eliminate Frivolous Lawsuits and Excessive Litigation - New
Excessive litigation and frivolous lawsuits is costing businesses and individuals billions of dollars, and is affecting our international competitiveness. At the state and federal levels we need to control excessive litigation, limit costs, and restore fairness and predictability to our legal system.
1. Limit Joint and Several Liability
2. Limit excessive punitive damages