Lobbying for Our Economic Good
The Coalition employs two government relations professionals in Columbia who work closely with the General Assembly. We are focused on creating jobs, raising per capita income, and improving our region’s incredible quality of life. |
About the Upstate Chamber Coalition
Representing 13 chambers, 8,000 member-businesses, and more than 300,000 employees. Our state’s economic heart lies in the Upstate. In 2009, seven Upstate Chambers of Commerce joined forces to form the Upstate Chamber Coalition. Today, we are 12 Chambers strong united as the voice of Upstate business concerns and devoted to improving our region’s business climate. As your advocate at the statehouse, the Upstate Chamber Coalition:
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2021 State Legislative Agenda
Lower Education and Workforce Barriers
The Coalition urges the General Assembly to review our state’s current penal code to prepare inmates for high-demand career opportunities and make it easier to transition into the workforce. Addressing the following issues will meet these directives in the future:
- Public School Reform
- Commit to a path to increasing teacher pay to the National Average;
- Study the implementation of pay bands for teachers with special skills and give districts more flexibility in recruiting for critical-needs areas;
- Allow districts to designate more deregulated schools;
- Allow high-performing schools to have up to 10% of their teachers be non-certified;
- Make it easier for mid-career professionals to switch to teaching;
- Offer tax credits to businesses that hire teachers as summer employees.
- Increase Educational Attainment
- Allow lottery tuition assistance to be used for those seeking high-quality industry credentials.
- Professional Licensing
- Require LLR and the boards that oversee professional licenses to carefully examine requirements to ensure they are necessary and not merely barriers to competition.
- Give our DACA residents the right to receive state licenses to work.
- Increase Access to Childcare
- Expand the accessibility of childcare options – a major workforce barrier. We must work on solutions to increase the accessibility of childcare and lower the cost to workers.
- Provide fair COVID liability protections for businesses and schools;
- Pass the “Fair Share Act”
The Coalition urges the General Assembly to review our state’s current penal code to prepare inmates for high-demand career opportunities and make it easier to transition into the workforce. Addressing the following issues will meet these directives in the future:
- Reform civil asset forfeiture laws;
- Pass a hate crime statute;
- Expand expungement for non-violent offenders;
- Assist returning citizens with vital records upon release; and
- Create a state tax credit for hiring returning citizens.
- Hold businesses’ unemployment rates harmless for layoffs from COVID-19 shutdowns;
- Actively target industries in California, New York, and other high-tax states to relocate;
- Increase state investment in tourism advertising;
- Support the development of high-speed broadband infrastructure in cities and rural areas;
- Provide resources to make it easier for employees to work from home;
- Restructure our state’s incentives so we may better attract office, headquarter, and R&D jobs that may have a large number of stay-at-home employees;
- Assist high-growth startup companies by making it easier to attract early-stage capital;
- Increase state support for mass transit in our metro areas;
- Dedicate funding to our commercial airports to expand passenger and cargo service;
- Require an economic impact statement for new regulations – not simply a state fiscal impact. Regulations above a certain economic impact should have a waiting period before being approved by the General Assembly.
- Close the state pension system to new employees;
- Switch to a defined contribution plan;
- Allow government subdivisions to leave the system so they may pay more competitive salaries; and
- Preserve promises made to those currently in the system.
2021 Federal Agenda
With the turmoil and turnover in Washington, the Upstate Chamber Coalition postponed putting together their Federal Agenda until later in 2021. We’ll post it here soon.
