2009 Annual Report – Public Policy

Communications | Public Policy | Organization Advancement | Smart Community | Economic Development

Government Affairs Committee
The Government Affairs committee spent 2009 monitoring key issues at all levels of government. Listed below are a few of last year’s highlights.

  1. The committee actively supported legislation that would have mitigated the impacts of increased freight traffic in our downtown corridor, and ultimately worked to re-route freight traffic.
  2. The Government Affairs Committee actively supported the reduction of transportation impact fees both levied on commercial property owners and/or developers at the County and City level. Both were lowered.
  3. The Committee partnered with the Education Committee in August to hold our first of what promises to become a habit of jointly meeting with our Polk Legislative Delegation to discuss issues that are important to the Lakeland Area Chamber of Commerce.
  4. Chamber staff made it a priority to regularly visit with legislative offices throughout the year to continue to build relationships and discuss legislative issues.
  5. The Government Affairs Committee continued to have a wide variety of speakers: Congressman Adam Putnam, Polk Legislative Delegation members; Lakeland Electric representatives; Danny Ours, Executive Director of the Lakeland Area Mass Transit Authority, Supervisor of Elections, Lori Edwards and Deirdre Macnab, President of the Florida League of Women Voters to name a few.

BusinessVoice, Inc.
BusinessVoice, Inc., created by the Chamber in 2000, is a Political Committee that supports and endorses pro-business political candidates, as well as promotes issues which impact the business community. Listed below are highlights of 2009.

  1. Launched www.businessvoiceinc.com
  2. Presented each City Commission candidate with a comprehensive questionnaire specifically designed to determine a candidate’s knowledge of issues facing the City. All candidate responses were then posted to the BusinessVoice website for public view.
  3. Continued the practice of conducting candidate interviews early in the election process to help establish the business supported candidates.
  4. Submitted voting recommendations to the Chamber Board and general membership prior to each municipal election via BusinessVoice email.

Economic Forecast Breakfast – January 15, 2009
The annual event turned out record attendance with over 600 Chamber members attending. Dr. Antonio Villamil treated guests to his predictions for Florida’s economy, and back by popular demand, Brian Wesbury offered the national forecast for 2009. We tried something new in 2009 and had morning’s presentations recorded by PGTV and later re-broadcast for those unable to attend.

The Chamber thanks Allen & Company for their twenty-two years of generous support for this event.

Legislative Wrap-Up Breakfast – May 21, 2009
The 2009 Legislative Wrap-Up Breakfast was another successful, informative public awareness event. Three hundred Chamber members gathered to hear first-hand how the business community fared during the 2009 session.

A very special thank you to Senator Rhonda Storms and Representatives Mike Horner, Seth McKeel, Kelli Stargel and John Wood for providing attendees with an educational morning.

The event would not have been possible without the support of our event sponsors AlphaGraphics, Colonial Bank, Folsom Construction, Lakeland Surgical & Diagnostic Center, Watson Clinic LLP, Bank of Central Florida, Marriott Vacation Club, Representative Seth McKeel and tmr Agency.