Chamber Board of Directors approves 2021 legislative priorities

JENNA BUZZACCO-FOERSTER, DIRECTOR OF GOVERNMENT RELATIONS

The Greater Naples Chamber Board of Directors voted unanimously on Oct. 24 to approve the Chamber’s 2021 legislative priorities.

The 2021 priorities were crafted following input from the Public Policy Committee and various Chamber partners. The priorities are in line with previous years’ priorities. The Chamber’s priorities primarily focus on career and technical training, housing affordability and water quality.

The Chamber’s 2021 water qualities priorities mirror those of the Southwest Florida Alliance of Chambers, of which the Greater Naples Chamber is a member. Formed in the wake of the 2018 water crisis, the Alliance is focused on smart solutions to our water quality concerns.

2021 Legislative Priorities

Economic opportunity

• We support fully funding workforce education provided by the technical college system, including Lorenzo Walker Technical College and Immokalee Technical College.
• We support a dedicated funding source for the creation and/or expansion of programming for high wage, high skill and in high demand fields to meet regional and state employment needs. 
  
• We support legislation that expands, encourages and incentivizes work-based learning opportunities, including career and technical training, internships and apprenticeships, and post-secondary education.

 
Workforce housing

• We support legislation that prohibits future fund transfers from the Sadowski housing trust funds to the general fund and support fully funding the Sadowski housing trust funds in the 2020-21 fiscal year.
• We support developing policies that increase attainable housing opportunities for our community members, including zoning changes to incentivize multi-unit development.

 
Water quality

• We support consistent sustained funding levels to accomplish the Everglades Agricultural Area projects and objective of sending clean water South as quickly as possible, including implementation of critical infrastructures projects north and south of Lake Okeechobee.
• We support legislative actions implementing the Blue-Green Algae Task Force recommendations that aim to reduce nutrient pollution from all sources, in order to protect the public, businesses and the environment from harmful algal blooms.
• We support strengthening stormwater standards for urban landscape (statewide stormwater rule update and ratification) and agricultural runoff, particularly for nutrient pollution from nitrogen and phosphorus that feeds harmful algal blooms.
• We support funding for and plans to upgrade and build advanced wastewater treatment to reduce nutrients in reuse/reclaimed irrigation water with monitoring of nutrient concentrations.
• We support the establishment of statewide septic tank inspection and maintenance requirements.
  
• We support local appropriations requests that address aging infrastructure, improve local and regional water quality, and benefit the local and regional communities.
  

Contact Jenna Buzzacco-Foerster, the Chamber's director of government relations, for more information about the Chamber's advocacy and public policy work.