"When the legislature gavels in for its 60-day session on January 8, members will be met by lobbying groups and associations with many of the same issues they brought to the Capitol in the 2007 session.
Small business incentives
"You've got too many small businesses that fail when they should succeed, and you've got too many small businesses that are struggling when they are thinking about growth. Right now most of our economic incentive programs aren't available to our truly small companies; they have cut-offs," said Mike Ridenour, vice president of public affairs for the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.
Ridenour said the legislature needs to put as much effort into incubating homegrown companies as it does in trying to attract established companies to the state.
"The ones that you grow here are going to stay here, and Kentucky has a dearth of corporate headquarters anyway, so what we need to be about is trying to foster those small companies while we can now, so as they grow they're headquartered here," he said. "Ideally, one of those small companies today that only employs two or three people with the right idea and the right niche and the right marketing approach could very well turn into the next Humana or the next Toyota or UPS."
Part of that plan, Ridenour said, is House Bill 114, which will offer a $25,000 tax incentive if a small company hires at least one individual and invests at least $5,000 in new equipment or new technology.
Public employee benefits
"Sustainable employee benefits (are) not something that I think we can fix tomorrow, but it is something that's got to be addressed," said Ridenour.
"If the new administration is going to have the money that they need to make good on a lot of the campaign focus and commitments that have been made, then it's going to have to be addressed.
"Even if we don't do it in 2008, sometime in the next few years, the administration and the general assembly are going to have to come together and tackle the issue, as tough as it may be," Ridenour said.
Sylvia Lovely, executive director and CEO of the Kentucky League of Cities, said not only is it important for the state to take care if its unfunded liability for its employees, but the state needs to help cities and counties around the commonwealth in stabilizing the cost of benefits.
"Local governments have been paying their bills on time; the state issue is they have not been funding it for quite a while. Ours is not as seriously under funded, but it is breaking the bank," Lovely said.
Workers' compensation
"When you talk to folks inside the state, the small businesses just located inside the state, they don't realize there is a problem with comp," said Commerce Lexington's Vice President of Public Affairs Chad Harpole. "Their comp rates have kind of stayed the same, but when you talk about the big manufacturers, folks that have a plant in Owensboro and a feeder plant across the river in Indiana, they're the ones (noticing Kentucky's) comp costs go out of the world."
Harpole said Commerce Lexington aligns itself with ideas set forth by Ridenour and the state chamber, which hopes to see generic prescription drugs become mandatory when available, as public and most private benefits require.
Another cost lowering strategy, according to Ridenour, is to drop the guarantee of lifetime coverage for workers' comp claims. Under current rules, treatment that can be linked to a workers' comp claim must be covered by workers' comp no matter how long it has been since the last time any treatment was needed for a workplace injury. Ridenour would like to see the rules changed so that a person needing lifetime treatment can still have it, but after 10 years without seeking treatment on a workplace injury, any future doctor's care must be billed to insurance instead of workers' compensation.
University bonding authority
"Bonding authority — our people think it is a no-brainer," Ridenour said. "If a university has a revenue-generating project that can basically self fund, most other statesallow universities to do bonding for various projects." That can be accomplished without negatively impacting the state's bond rating, he added.
"We hope that it might actually have a chance, because it sounds like Gov. (Steve) Beshear is in support of that," Harpole said.
Funding of K-16 education
"In terms of this amorphous issue of education and what needs to be the right focus, part of it is saying, 'Look, we've made outstanding progress in a relatively short period of time, but that doesn't excuse us from a great deal of work.' Nobody's going to go out there tomorrow and put a bumper sticker on their car that say's, 'Hey, we're 34th in education.' We still have a long way to go," Ridenour said.
One of the main focuses, according to both chambers, needs to be collaboration between the colleges and grade schools to make sure curricula lineup to stop the amount of remediation needed once students reach college. Remedial classes cost the same as any other class offered by universities, but students do not receive credit for them and must then stay in school longer.
Legislative priorities for business
KENTUCKY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE:
Improve postsecondary education
Contain health care costs
Improve workers' compensation
Support small business tax incentives
Develop sustainable public employee benefits
COMMERCE LEXINGTON:
Commerce Lexington has no "top priorities" per se, but here are a few must-haves:
Newtown Pike - Money to build the road is already taken care of, but $27 million in funding needed for planning the peripheral projects
Airport runway — Project will cost $9 million more if the legislature waits because federal matching funds will no longer be available.
Kentucky Horse Park: Funds are needed to complete new stadium and infrastructure in time for the 2010 Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games.
Education: UK's top 20 plan needs to be funded, and state must also fully fund K-12.
KENTUCKY LEAGUE OF CITIES:
Local public healthcare and retirement costs — These costs continue rising at unsustainable rates and could soon "break the bank."
Local option - Cities should have the ability to ask their voters to approve a sunset tax aimed at particular projects.
Telecommunications tax shortfall - A provision in the 2005 telecommunications law has left cities with a shortfall from taxes no longer collected on telecom fees.