By Jacki Dezelski  |  Herald-Tribune

The 2020 Florida Legislative Session does not begin until Jan. 14, but important committee work has begun in Tallahassee. Our business community is focused on next year’s session and the Manatee Chamber of Commerce’s legislative priorities have already taken shape.

Each year we develop state and federal policy priorities to guide our advocacy for the business community. Two weeks ago we delivered the chamber’s 2020 state legislative priorities to our lawmakers at the Manatee legislative delegation meeting. Our elected officials have demonstrated tremendous support of our community. We saw a number of successes come out of the 2019 session including:

  • Water quality issues were a priority in Tallahassee, including $25 million to address red tide and blue-green algae and $3 million in recurring funding for six years for red tide research to Mote Marine Laboratory.
  • Our lawmakers also showed continued support for our post-secondary institutions, with workforce programming being essential to our region’s ability to develop a highly skilled workforce. Specifically, operational support for USF Sarasota-Manatee, State College of Florida and Manatee Technical College were a focus along with increased funding for performance-based industry certifications for technical colleges and capital funding for SCF’s nursing center and science laboratory.

In just a few weeks, the Manatee Chamber will hit the halls of the state capitol to meet with key agency heads, lawmakers and legislative staff during their committee week. Our platform covers a number of topics that affect both our business climate and our quality of life. A few highlights of the top 2020 priorities we will be advocating in Tallahassee include:

  • Urge the use of all of Florida’s housing trust funds (Sadowski Act) to be used solely for housing programs.
  • Support of continued focus on legislation related to improved water quality.
  • Support of funding and expedited replacement of the DeSoto Bridge and consideration of all alternatives that will facilitate improved north/south capacity on the U.S. 41 corridor.
  • Support of funding the construction phase of the Anna Maria and Cortez Bridge projects including a “bus-on-shoulder” lane for emergency vehicles and future transit alternatives.
  • Support of increased funding and/or enabling legislation for expanded access to long-term and acute behavioral health treatment focused on addiction, mental health and suicide prevention, including funding to address the mental health crisis occurring at the VPK through high school levels.
  • Support of legislation to improve access to quality early learning, accountability measures for school readiness, including voluntary pre-kindergarten and kindergarten readiness, and support for grade-level reading.
  • Support of funding for all Florida’s Public Technical College/Centers Workforce Education Programs at a minimum equitable funding level of 100% of the state model as developed and approved by the State FLDOE Workforce Education Funding Committee.
  • Support of bonding Public Education Capital Outlay (PECO) funds to construct education facilities that expand access to workforce education, including the SCF Parrish Center Phase 1 and the USF-SM Academic STEM Facility.
  • Support of legislation that would reduce the Commercial Lease Tax (Business Rent Tax) over time, including usage of sales tax on internet sales (if passed) to accelerate the reduction.
  • Support of Enterprise Florida to proactively market the state as a business destination and incentivize corporations to relocate to Florida.
  • Support of Visit Florida to ensure the state is a premier destination for visitors nationally and internationally.

We thank our state senators and House of Representatives members for their dedicated service and commitment to our community. The Manatee Chamber amplifies the voice of 2,000 businesses in our region and we are grateful to the hundreds of business leaders whose work through chamber committees builds the foundation of our advocacy. We will continually monitor our priorities as bills make their way through the process to stress the importance of policies that strengthen our business environment and enhance our quality of life.

Article last accessed on October 16, 2019 here. A print-ready version is available here.