South KC Chamber Legislative Agenda
2023 PRIORITIES
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Provide adequate funding to support programs and other initiatives to help train employees in high-demand career and technical education fields.
CHILDCARE
Support affordable access to childcare for workers in Missouri.
TRANSPORTATION
Support a long-term, sustainable transportation funding plan that delivers a sound asset management-based approach to maintaining existing roads and bridges, improving safety, and providing for economic development. We also encourage equitable investment in all modes of transportation including roads and bridges, rail, public transit and bicycle/pedestrian facilities, and Missouri’s waterways.
VIOLENCE
Support legislation to reduce violence in our communities, specifically, efforts to pass Blair’s Law to make discharging a firearm with criminal negligence in cities a state offense, and other legislation to strengthen judicial tools to reduce violent crime.
BUSINESS AND ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
The Chamber supports efforts to attract and maintain a strong workforce and a system of fair and equitable taxes, tax incentives, and tax credits that encourage business and economic growth and development of the South Kansas City area. We also support efforts to enhance public safety and strengthen judicial tools, making our community a safe place to live, work, and do business.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
- Provide adequate funding to support programs and other initiatives to help train critical employees in high-demand career and technical education fields.
- Support legislation to help create attainable workforce housing including the continued funding of the Low-Income Housing Tax Credits (LIHTC) program.
- Support affordability and accessibility to childcare for workers in Missouri.
- Support legislation to create incentives and eliminate penalties for retired workers to return to the workforce.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
- Support enhancing initiatives to improve the climate for small business growth and development including seed capital funds and programs, additional funding for state innovation centers and small business and technology development centers, and funding for the Missouri Technology Corporation.
- Oppose discriminatory legislation that will detrimentally impact Missouri’s economic development and growth.
- Support the 2023 Kansas City Consensus Agenda for Economic Development.
GENERAL BUSINESS
- Support tort reform initiatives including measures to protect employers from frivolous lawsuits and eliminating joint and several liability.
- Oppose legislation to eliminate the earnings tax in Kansas City and St. Louis.
- Support legislation that extends the length of time between required elections to approve the earnings tax to at least 10 years.
- Oppose efforts to change how Community Improvement Districts and Transportation Development Districts are created and governed in the state of Missouri.
- Support legislation that strengthens judicial tools, including supporting courts that serve nonviolent offenders, to fight violent crime.
- Support efforts to pass Blair’s Law to make discharging a firearm with criminal negligence in cities a state offense.
ENERGY EFFICIENCY AND RELIABILITY
The Chamber encourages investments in energy reliability and efficiency and supports policies that provide a balance between public health and environmental protections without unreasonable economic burdens on industry, business, and Missouri residents.
- Support policies that encourage expansion and further development of renewable energy to deliver affordable and reliable energy to the Kansas City region and other high-demand areas.
- Support legislation to create and adopt a renewable energy program for natural gas and hydrogen projects that would attract millions of dollars in capital investment and create domestic, clean energy sector jobs in Missouri.
HEALTHCARE
The Chamber supports initiatives that promote improved health and wellness of community members.
- Support including dental healthcare for families and children through the Medicaid program.
- Support a comprehensive statewide response to the substance use epidemic with additional resources, including prevention, Medication Assisted Treatment (MAT), recovery support, and recovery housing components.
- Support legislation that reforms regulations regarding specific eligible provider credential requirements and licensure reciprocity practices at both the state and federal levels to maximize the labor market for Missouri healthcare organizations.
- Provide long-term funding for the rollout of the 988 Suicide Prevention Hotline.
- Support reevaluating state programs that offer rehabilitation services for healthcare workers.
- Support reducing burdensome restrictions regarding the independent practice of experienced APRNs/NPs, thus effectively expanding the labor pool for prescribers, which assists healthcare providers with better meeting the needs of the communities they serve.
- Support legislation to change state regulations that keep St. Joseph Medical Center from becoming a Level 3 Trauma Center.
EDUCATION
The Chamber supports all levels of education and special education funding to strengthen the quality of education in the area, thus improving the business viability and workforce development of the region.
Pre-K through12 Education
- Encourage efforts, both local and state, to provide sufficient funding for universal, high-quality pre-k education for all Kansas City Metropolitan area residents with the inclusion of the public school districts as key players in providing those services.
- Support legislation that requires all charter schools and MOCAP approved virtual programs to be held to the same standards as all public schools with accreditation status.
- Oppose legislation that allows charter school expansion into districts where tax revenues are not sufficient to support the overhead of multiple educational institutions.
- Support legislation that promotes equitable and inclusive educational opportunities for our diverse learners.
- Support expansion of statewide broadband to ensure all students have access to high-speed internet services and that these services are affordable for all families.
Higher Education
- Support the continuation of the Missouri A+ Program and efforts to maintain or increase participation and funding to cover at least 12 credit hours a semester per student.
- Support Missouri Community College Association’s request for a $30 million increase to support Missouri community colleges and move them closer to funding provided to state universities.
TRANSPORTATION
The Chamber supports a long-term, sustainable transportation funding plan that delivers a sound asset management-based approach to maintaining existing roads and bridges, improving safety, and providing for economic development. We also encourage equitable funding in all modes of transportation including roads and bridges, rail, public transit, bicycle/pedestrian facilities, and Missouri’s waterways.
- Support efforts to create a sustainable transportation funding plan to provide the full funding needed to meet Missouri’s transportation needs.
- Support and monitor the development and implementation of a comprehensive multimodal transit strategy for the Kansas City area that encourages business, retail, and housing development along future high-service and existing interstate corridors, especially I-49
- Support the inclusion of American Rescue Plan funds to expand access to public transportation in underserved exurban areas.
LOCAL PRIORITIES
WORKFORCE TRANSPORTATION
- Support the development of more transit options to help employers get employees to and from their jobs and training opportunities
- Support the continuation of free bus service in the Kansas City metropolitan area.
ADDITIONAL ISSUES WE’RE MONITORING
The following issues are important to the Chamber and legislation will be monitored as it is introduced.
- Monitor any legislation that exchanges income tax for consumption tax
- Monitor ethics reform
- Monitor unemployment compensation reform
- Monitor mandates to municipalities that reduce local control and negatively impact local budgets
- Monitor streetcar expansion
- Monitor efforts to maximize the labor market for Missouri healthcare organizations
- Monitor how the implementation of recreational marijuana impacts employers
- Monitor changes to existing state economic development incentives and programs, including but not limited to MODESA, TIF, state tax credits, and historic and low-income tax credits.
- Monitor the creation of new economic development tools that help to compete with other states, focusing incentives on companies that create high-paying new jobs for the region.
- Monitor efforts to create an Angel Investment Tax Credit Program.
- Monitor efforts to ensure strong Federal Reimbursement Allowance funding for providers.
- Monitor the permanent adoption of recent changes in regulations regarding the provision of telemedicine services to improve access to healthcare services for our communities.
Interested in Government Affairs?