Joaquin Zihuatanejo from CoolSpeak recently presented at the First Annual Multicultural Affairs Youth Leadership Summit. This video was created by Zihuatanejo and Art Hooker. Zihuatanejo wrote this poem for the Governor’s 66 by 2020 initiative and goal shared by Prosperity 2020, the largest business-led movement to increase innovation, investment and accountability in education.
Enjoy!
Editor’s note: This article originally appeared on Free Enterprise, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce blog.
$1.8 trillion buys a lot of red tape.
That’s how much the federal regulatory machine is costing Americans each year, according to the 20th edition of the Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Ten Thousand Commandments report.
This huge number is $50 billion more per year than what a Small Business Administration study found in 2008.
In an op-ed in the Daily Caller, the report’s author Waynes Crews along with CEI’s Ryan Young note “that the cost of regulation has exceeded half the size of the federal budget.” And in the report, it notes that cost of complying with federal regulations is more than the economic output of Canada or Mexico.
Here are some other unfortunate facts about the federal regulatory system:
- 78,961 pages were added to the 2012 Federal Register. While that may be a lot of pages, itonly was the fourth-most prolific year of all time (81,405 pages were added in 2010).
- 2,517 rules were proposed in 2012, the most since 2003.
- Of the over 4,000 regulations in the pipeline, 224 are “economically significant,” meaning they’ll cost more than $100 million.
- The top five rule-making agencies of 2012 were the Departments of Treasury, Commerce, Interior, Agriculture, and Transportation. If you include EPA, which is sixth, these agencies accounted for 48% (1,953) of all federal rules.
This costly, unaccountable system needs reform. To remain globally competitive, we need a regulatory process that properly weighs rules’ benefits and costs and is transparent to the public.
We just thought you might like to see this photo. While Congress debates comprehensive immigration reform, other nations, like our neighbor to the north, are looking to capitalize on their streamlined immigration systems.
“This is a stark reminder of how we’re only hurting ourselves in a global competition for talent,” says Tim Wheelwright, chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Immigration Task Force and partner at Kuck Immigration. “Our competitors see this as an area where they have an advantage.”
Utah businesses–including our booming tech industry–need more high-skilled workers. The Salt Lake Chamber has called for Congress to pass the best immigration bill possible as soon as possible–and to get it done this year.
While clean energy progress remains slow at the national level, the Salt Lake Chamber has emerged as one of the top local chambers in the country driving economic development around clean energy, according to a first-of-its-kind report released today by Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE).
With ten in-depth case studies of chambers located throughout the country, Local Chambers as Change Agents: Creating Economic Vitality through Clean Energy and Innovation provides the first comprehensive look into the role of the Salt Lake Chamber and other local chambers in attracting investment, supporting business growth and diversifying their local economies around clean energy and energy efficiency.
“Businesses look at our air quality as a major factor in deciding whether to relocate to the Salt Lake region,” said Lane Beattie, president and CEO of the Salt Lake Chamber. “By working with local businesses to reduce their fuel use or use cleaner fuels, the Salt Lake Chamber is helping to strengthen our economy and keep Salt Lake City competitive. The Salt Lake Chamber is proud to be recognized as a national leader in clean energy-related economic development.”
As highlighted in the new report, the Salt Lake Chamber founded the Clean Air Champions program in 2012, seeking to proactively address the impact of poor air quality on economic development along the Wasatch Front. Through its innovative program, the Chamber shares best practices and educates businesses on converting fleets to cleaner fuels, planning more efficient routes and using teleworking to cut fuel costs. The Chamber also recognizes companies that cut their fuel use—contributing to cleaner air—through its website and radio coverage.
Companies participating in the Clean Air Champions program include:
- UPS, which has saved more than 10 million gallons of fuel since 2004 with smarter vehicle-route planning
- Rio Tinto, a global mining company that operates in Utah and saves an average of $1.65 million per year with its no-idling policy for trucks
- Architectural Nexus, which has seen its travel expenses drop by nearly $72,000 annually after implementing a new video conferencing system in place of travel
“Our Clean Air Champions program shows fuel savings have a significant bottom-line benefit,” said Ryan Evans, vice president of business and community relations for the Salt Lake Chamber. “The program has helped establish the Chamber as a leader in addressing air quality challenges and has attracted many statewide partners to help convey they importance of clean air for Utah’s economy.”
“The Salt Lake Chamber’s Clean Air Champions program is improving the economic well-being and quality of life in Salt Lake City,” said Diane Doucette, executive director of Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy. “Other local chambers can benefit by following the Salt Lake Chamber’s model of educating businesses on easy cost and fuel-saving techniques, and celebrating business champions that participate in the program.”
Based on surveys of hundreds of local chambers of commerce, CICE’s report highlights 10 chambers in Ohio, North Carolina, South Carolina, Illinois, Texas, Utah, Tennessee, Michigan, Massachusetts and California. By catalyzing clean energy projects in their own communities and convening stakeholders— including policymakers, regulators, entrepreneurs, investors, academics and labor groups—around clean energy efforts, these chambers are spurring new business opportunities for local companies and giving their member businesses a voice in policy discussions around clean energy and energy efficiency.
CICE’s report, Local Chambers as Change Agents, is available here.
Chambers for Innovation and Clean Energy (CICE) is a national Clean Energy network and Information Hub for local chambers of commerce. Created and led by local chambers, CICE helps fellow chambers and their member companies successfully navigate and prosper in the clean energy space. CICE provides access to clean energy information, best practices, energy experts, incentives, and business opportunities. CICE’s Advisory Council includes Chamber CEOs from every region of the country. Visit CICE at www.chambersforinnovation.com.
“If budget negotiators have to rely on just two buckets—spending and taxes—to control the huge deficits we’re facing, they can’t get there. We need a third bucket—and we’ve got it in energy. And it’s fuller and deeper than anyone imagined just a few years ago.”
Tom Donohue, U.S. Chamber President and CEO
As you can see in the graphic above, energy is a big part of the Utah economy–especially when you zero in on that $1.5 billion in total wages figure. Energy has the potential to be a driving force in the Utah economy for decades to come.
The U.S. Chamber is leading the way on energy production by calling on the president and Congress to include it as an option to help the United States resolve its long-term budget problems. The Salt Lake Chamber supports policies that encourage and facilitate appropriate energy production in Utah and nationally.
A new study commissioned by the U.S. Chamber found that in the unconventional oil and natural gas development energy sector 1.3 million new jobs can be created by 2020 and an additional 1.8 million jobs by 2035. This economic activity will generate $2.5 trillion in tax revenue by 2035.
At the end of April, Questar Corp. CEO Ron Jibson, who is the incoming chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors and chairman of the American Gas Association, was interviewed by Bloomberg TV. He discusses some of the big issues facing the energy sector today–particularly natural gas.
The implementation date for the Affordable Care Act is drawing closer and closer and the lack of direction from the federal government has many small businesses worried about its impact.
CBS This Morning ran this story on how the ACA is making business owners nervous… and a few key lawmakers, too.
An article on Free Enterprise goes into some more detail about business concerns with the ACA:
Gallup finds that 48% of small business owners think the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) “is going to be bad for their business,” while 39% don’t think it’ll have an impact. Fifty-five percent of those polled think the health care law will increase their health care costs, while only 5% think they’ll pay less.
Lisa Scherzer at Yahoo’s The Exchange blog points out some additional data showing confusion with the law:
A survey conducted in February by eHealth of 259 business owners with fewer than 50 workers found that almost a third (32 percent) of respondents incorrectly believe they’ll be required to provide group insurance in 2014, and 24 percent think they’ll be taxed if they don’t.
“There’s clearly a significant amount of misinformation floating around affecting a number of employers and making them panic,” says Linda Blumberg, a senior fellow of the Urban Institute’s Health Policy Center.
“So many small-business owners are confused about this, but there’s an appetite to learn about it,” says Kevin Kuhlman, manager of legislative affairs at the National Federation of Independent Business. No doubt in part because of this confusion, in February the SBA launched a site to help educate business owners on the new law.
Consumers are baffled, too. A Kaiser Family Foundation survey from March found that, three years after the law’s passage, a majority of Americans (57 percent) say they don’t have enough information about the ACA to understand how it will affect them.
What’s very disturbing from this poll is 41 percent said they’ve held off on hiring workers, and 38 percent said they’ve pulled back on growing their businesses because of the law.
Editor’s note: This article, written by Chamber executive VP of Communication Marty Carpenter, originally appeared on KSL.com.
Trends show more Utah businesses are designating their workplaces as tobacco-free, and their employees and clients are reaping the health and financial benefits.
Now, by tobacco-free I’m not simply talking about not allowing smoking in the office. The Utah Clean Air Act prohibits that. I’m talking about declaring the entire work campus tobacco-free; that means not allowing smoking anywhere on a business’ property.
Businesses are making the change in the workplace and in the workforce. The issue is essentially one of money. The more tobacco users employed by a business, the higher the cost of health insurance plans. Reduce the number of tobacco users in your organization and the cost of health care goes down while productivity increases.
“Tobacco cessation is the single most cost effective benefit an employer can provide,” says Claire Brockbank, a Stanford and Harvard educated hospital and health care consultant based in Denver. She was part of the Tobacco-Free Workforce Summit held Wednesday, May 1, sponsored by the Utah Tobacco Prevention Task Force.
The numbers back up her statement. Tobacco users cost company pharmaceutical plans twice as much and smokers are 50 percent more likely to be hospitalized. Each smoker costs their employer more than $1,600 a year in smoking-attributable medical expenditures.
Absenteeism hurts productivity, too. Smokers average two more sick days per year than non-smokers. That’s on top of the fact that smokers spend up to eight percent of their workday on smoking-related activities. That adds up to four weeks of paid time lost each year.
Under the Affordable Care Act (or the ACA, also known as “Obamacare”), insurance companies will soon be able to charge up to 50 percent higher premiums for tobacco users. With businesses facing an increase in health care costs somewhere in the 35 percent range this year reducing the harm of tobacco makes sense for every business.
That’s why businesses are looking to cut costs and increase productivity by helping their employees kick the habit.
Neerings Plumbing and Heating is a family-owned business that has been in operation since 1935. Neerings began phasing in its tobacco-free worksite program in 2007. In phase 1, employees were required to clock out before taking tobacco breaks, they could no longer smoke in company vehicles and they had to stop using tobacco within 50 feet of a customer’s house or business. Nine months later, phase 2 required employees to stop using tobacco during work hours, on company property, at customer homes or businesses, and in company vehicles.
The policies make sense because the return on investment is strong. A business can pay somewhere between a dime and 40 cents per employee each month on tobacco cessation programs. If successful, the savings are impressive. Factoring in just the reduced risk just for cardiovascular disease saves $47 in the first year and nearly $900 over an eight-year period. Estimates show if even a modest investment in counseling and treatment were offered to all smokers in the workforce, the U.S. would save $3 billion in medical care costs.
Dr. Sarah Woolsey, medical director of HealthInsight Utah says work environment policies (like a tobacco-free workplace) and support programs have an impact on cessation rates. Eight out of 10 smokers in Utah say they plan to quit; nearly 15 percent say they plan to do so in the next year. While 60 percent of daily Utah adult smokers say they stopped for a day or longer with the intent to quit for good, only four to seven percent were successful without using a cessation program or medicinal help.
Businesses are bracing for health care insurance cost increases around 35 percent or higher this year. That impending increase has them scrambling for ways to offset the cost of providing health insurance.
The last thing a business wants to do is watch profits go up in smoke.
As the Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED) announced the allocation of some STEM-related funds, Miss America joined business leaders and policy makers in championing the importance of STEM education in a press conference on Friday at the Salt Lake Chamber.
The Utah Legislature appropriated $10 million for a STEM Action Center during the 2013 session. Sophia DeCaro, deputy director of GOED, announced $1.5 million will go to establish a director, staff and board. $5 million will be dedicated to math skill building in sixth, seventh and eighth grades, while $3.5 million will go to juniors and seniors in high school for college math readiness.
“If we don’t give our children an education that provides them an edge, their future jobs will be taken from them by students in China, India or the rest of the world,” said Stan Lockhart of IM Flash and private sector chair for Utah’s STEM Education Initiative. “What can we do to give them an edge? What can we do to teach them the skills that allow them to compete in this digital world we live in? What it comes down to is this: science, technology, engineering and math.”
Mallory Hagan, the reigning Miss America, says she expressed great interest in math and science in middle school thanks to passionate teachers who cared about her success. “But [in high school] we had teachers who were making sure we made good grades on tests but not making sure we could comprehend any of the information. That’s a hard lesson to learn when you’re a freshman in bio-medical science.”
Hagan has since changed her educational path to marketing with a focus in cosmetics and fragrance, but wishes she had learned back in her formative years the “cool” jobs that she could have from pursuing more math and science, like making lipstick and mascara and not just wearing it.
Today, she encourages mentorship as part of an education to show students what kinds of opportunities are available to them, since dissecting frogs and learning about atoms doesn’t give them the whole scope what of what they are able do.
“There are so many kids across the nation who don’t have a favorite subject, who don’t enjoy school, and they are in the first, second and third grade. That’s really disheartening because we want kids to want to learn. We need to catch them early on otherwise there’s no hope for the rest of their education process.”
And a quality education can help make the difference, whether that’s in only in making good grades to get to college or making an actual difference in the world as many STEM-related jobs are able to do.
Salt Lake City International Airport is in rare air, both on a regional and international scale, according to the World Airport Awards.
Jumping up five spots from last year, Salt Lake City International Airport ranks as the 94th best airport in the world. The airport in the top spot for 2013 is Singapore Changi Airport.
In North America, however, SLC International ranks as the ninth best regional airport, securing its spot among the region’s most active and popular airports, such as Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport, Denver International Airport, Halifax Stanfield International Airport, Minneapolis-Saint Paul International Airport and Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport among others.
Maureen Riley, executive director of the Salt Lake City Department of Airports, suggested in a Salt Lake Tribune article that recent renovations in the restaurant and concession venues could have triggered the upswing of positive remarks about SLC International.
And now your help is needed to continue to improve our state’s international airport. Over the next several years, a new terminal will be built at Salt Lake City International Airport, and the Terminal Redevelopment Project wants your input to create the most efficient and functional terminal possible. Visit MyAirportSLC.com to share your thoughts about how to make our airport better.
The World Airport Awards are based on more than 12.1 million survey questionnaires completed by airline customers in 395 airports worldwide. The survey evaluates traveler experiences across 39 different airport service and key performance indicators – from check-in, arrivals, transfers, shopping, security and immigration through to departure at the gate.
The Airport of the Year survey is an independent Passenger study managed by Skytrax, and only airport survey that achieves a true worldwide participant base – known as the “Passenger’s Choice” awards.
Immigration reform is one of the compelling challenges of our time. If we rise to that challenge, we can ensure that our great country can compete and win in the global race for talent. We can secure the lives and livelihoods of all Americans. And we can reaffirm our proud and honorable legacy as an open and welcoming society.
The time to act is now. Our current system isn’t serving the interests of our economy, businesses, workers, or security. America cannot compete and win in a global economy without the world’s best talent, hardest workers, or biggest dreamers. Gaps and shortages in our workforce put American jobs at risk—because if companies can’t find all the workers they need here, they will be forced to move the work somewhere else.
Today, we have our best shot yet at fixing our system. A bipartisan group of senators has shown true leadership and courage in forging a bill that has the support and input of business, labor, faith-based organizations, civil rights and ethnic groups, and law enforcement.
These leaders have proposed tough, practical measures to secure our borders, while still allowing people and commerce to flow efficiently and lawfully in and out of our country. Their bill includes a thoughtfully designed temporary worker program to allow employers to use immigrant labor when U.S. workers are not readily available. It better ties visas to market demands. It helps ensure that we don’t educate the best foreign talent in the world and then send them home to compete against us. It makes E-Verify a national employee verification system. And it provides a path out of the shadows for the 11 million undocumented immigrants who live in the United States today, provided that they meet some strict conditions.
The Senate bill is only the beginning of what must be an open and transparent debate. We must respect all viewpoints in this important debate, even those that differ from our own. But we should have little patience for those who decide to prey on fear and misunderstanding—or those who place their own short-term political interests above the national interest.
This is a moment that cries out for principled, courageous leadership that puts it all on the line to build a brighter and more hopeful future for our children and grandchildren. We need this leadership on many serious issues—deficits, debt, entitlement reform, education, national security, and others. Let’s start with immigration reform.
Let’s show the world that America still has the ability to do great things. It’s about time.
This article was written by Tom Donohue, President and CEO of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, for Free Enterprise.
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