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YOUR AMBASSADORS IN SACRAMENTO Outreach to members and on behalf of members is a vital function of any Chamber and one admirably carried out at mixers and community events by the Chamber Ambassadors. But did you know another significant outreach function is served by the Southwest California Legislative Council? Entering our ninth year of local business advocacy, the SWCLC extends the Chamber’s reach and magnifies the members voice on critical legislative and regulatory issues in Sacramento and Washington DC. This year we are pleased to welcome the Menifee Chamber of Commerce to the Council, joining the Temecula Valley, Murrieta, Wildomar and Lake Elsinore Valley Chambers. With the addition of Menifee, the Council now represents more than 2,800 employers in Southwest California and nearly 30,000 employees (and potential voters). Being an ambassador for that many business owners and their employees is a great responsibility that the Council takes very seriously. But it also puts a lot of focus on our message and it means that our local legislators don’t just attend our meetings, they listen when we/you talk. And if that’s not enough, we also regularly join in coalition with other interest groups around the state to bring even greater weight to our position. In addition to regular allies like the California Chamber of Commerce, in 2013 we joined with groups as diverse as the California League of Cities, the California Association of Realtors, the California Building Industry Association, the California Association of Winegrape Growers, the Metropolitan Water District and Southern California Edison as well as retailers, manufacturers, grocers, farmers and engineers, to name a few. When our name appears on the letterhead, your voice joins thousands of others working toward the same goal. Last year we made every attempt to reach across the aisle to support as many business friendly bills as possible. We adopted position on 107 bills out of nearly 3,000 proposed, supporting nearly 40%, opposing 60%. In California that’s about as bi-partisan as you can get because there’s a lot of bad business bills out there coming almost exclusively from one side of the aisle. Of those 107, just 14 bills made it all the way through and we were 50/50 on those, backing 7, opposing the other 7. Unfortunately we are anticipating that we will be playing much more defensively in 2014. Last year was the first year of the supermajority legislature in Sacramento and there was a certain testing of boundaries going on up there. With the realization that there are few, if any, boundaries, there could be a rash of new tax measures, restrictions and regulations designed to protect you from yourself and make running your business even more challenging. As always, we encourage you to join us the 3rd Monday of every month as the Council weighs the issues that will be impacting your business. If you have a specific issue that would either be very good or very bad for your business, please bring it to our attention by emailing gad@swcaladvocacy.com. Adding your voice to our outreach makes us all stronger. 2 0 | TEMECU LA TO DAY | M A R C H • A PRIL 20 1 4