The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce will continue our role as the primary business advocate for Lincoln’s continued growth. We will be focused, issue-based, and non-partisan while asserting the positive and essential role business plays in improving our community and expanding opportunities for all citizens.
The Lincoln Chamber’s key local objectives for 2008:
ROAD INFRASTRUCTURE The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce will continue to prioritize our efforts to fund our road infrastructure funding gap. The Lincoln Chamber strongly supports efforts to direct the growth dividend to growth-related needs, particularly roads. We support segregating road funds that counties and municipalities hold for use on street and road construction. We view the need for critical infrastructure funding as one of the most important job and investment growth issues facing Lincoln.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce will support local initiatives that facilitate the LPED strategic plan for the Lincoln region. The Lincoln Chamber will work cooperatively with UNL, 2015 Vision, and other institutions and organizations to improve Lincoln’s competitiveness for expanding primary jobs and community investment. We will support local initiatives that reduce the costs of job creation and oppose those that increase such efforts. The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce supports continuous improvements to our business and regulatory climate. We must be competitive with other communities when competing for jobs and investments; our goal is to ensure ‘home-grown’ businesses have no reason to look elsewhere when considering expansion and that prospective businesses will find Lincoln their easy first choice. Lincoln must streamline our development process and ensure our standards (i.e. flood plain, design, etc.) for development are reasonable and help us retain and attract quality jobs.
GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce reiterates our stance that each local governmental body should have a general goal to not increase their property tax reliance more than the rate of inflation. As state government lowers state taxes, all units of local government must be prepared to prioritize their needs in preparation for a future environment of less state support. As part of this effort, the Lincoln Chamber calls upon all local units of government to renew their commitment to exploring ways to reduce personnel costs.
CVB AND EVENT FACILITIES NEEDS The Lincoln Chamber of Commerce will place particular emphasis on supporting local efforts that assist the Convention and Visitors Bureau in executing its mission of bringing more visitors, events, and conventions to the Lincoln area. We believe Lincoln must have adequate facilities to serve an established need for our community and that upgraded event facilities help Lincoln maintain itself as a vibrant and growing community.
