Editor’s note: This post contains prepared remarks from the news conference presenting the 2012 Public Policy Guide.

Lane Beattie:

2012 can be—and we believe it will be—a remarkable year for our state.

In just a few months, downtown Salt Lake City will celebrate the opening of the City Creek Center. Our transformation from fortress malls to a vibrant, pedestrian-friendly, urban center will be complete.

Our commitment to public transit will continue to pay off as we open two new TRAX lines, one to Draper and one to the Salt Lake City International Airport.

The I-15-CORE project, the largest state funded public works project in our state history, will also be completed this year—much to the pleasure of the residents of Utah County.

2012 will mark a new beginning for the Salt Lake City International Airport. When it is complete, we will better be able to welcome visitors from the world to our state.

We will welcome some 55,000 new Utahns to the world, as our state continues to be one of the fastest growing in the nation.

2012 also marks the tenth anniversary of the 2002 Winter Olympic Games—perhaps the greatest event in our state’s long and rich history.

This year the Salt Lake Chamber will also celebrate its 125^th anniversary.

Most importantly, in 2012, we also begin our second full year of economic growth since the Great Recession.

Today we release our 2012 Public Policy Guide. This guide lays out the business community’s priorities for the year. The guide was presented this morning to the President of the Senate and the Speaker of the House. We will deliver a copy to every member of the Legislature and other key officials later today.

The 2012 Public Policy Guide is available on our website at slchamber.com.

2012 is a year of decisions. We all know this is an election year—and a big one at that. In a few months, Utahns will assemble at caucus meetings to elect delegates. Later in the spring the delegates will choose the names that appear on the ballots in June and November. And in November we will elect a senator, four members of the House of Representatives—including our new 4^th district, and vote on 91 seats in the State Legislature. We will choose a governor, a Lt. Gov. and an attorney general, as well as a state treasurer and auditor. A majority of seats on the state school board are also up for election.

But the biggest decisions we will make in 2012 will not take place in a voting booth. If we make the right decisions, 2012 will be seen as a time when we charted the path to more prosperous times.

2012 must be the year we decide to embrace optimism. Optimism for our economy that has been growing for over two years now. Optimism for job creation as our unemployment rate declines. Optimism for a brighter day that is no longer far on the horizon, but within our grasp.

2012 is the year we decide to put the Great Recession and the Grueling Recovery behind us.

2012 must be a year in which we continue to pursue the elements of the Utah Jobs Agenda. Our economy grew by more than 30,000 jobs last year. Just this morning, our unemployment rate dropped to 6 percent, and we are now two-and-a-half points below the national rate. Utah’s economy is growing at more than twice the rate of the nation as a whole.

2012 is the year we decide to protect and build on our investment in mobility. We will not jeopardize the work we have done over the past decade; we must decide to maintain what we have built and to add to it.

Health care costs continue to climb at an alarming rate and threaten the livelihood of all Utah families. Let this be the year we make decisions to firmly establish incentives that increase the level of care and not the level of cost.

Clean air is critical to public health and to the health of our economy. Business must do its part and we support efforts to preserve Utah’s unsurpassed natural beauty and the air we breathe.

As we mark the opening of the 2012 General Legislative Session next week. We call upon our elected officials to decide to make 2012 a banner year for our state.

- We must decide to be civil.
- We must decide to create jobs to help our unemployed and our underemployed.
- We must decide to be innovative and invest in both public and higher education.
- We must decide to be leaders in immigration reform and in our support of state’s rights.
- We must decide to be actively engaged in our government.

Our 2012 Public Policy Guide outlines our position and priorities. Additionally, we are focused on five big decisions we will face this year. I’m joined today by five business leaders, each will speak briefly to these points.

Civility – Todd Wolfenbarger
My name is Todd Wolfenbarger, I’m the president of The Summit Group.

2012 must be the year we decide to be civil—in our dialogue and our interaction with one another.

The Salt Lake Chamber supports civility in word and in action. Too often, people with differing opinions say and do unkind and disrespectful things. As the voice of business in Utah, we believe civility must be a guiding value in public discourse. We commit ourselves to respectful discourse and behavior toward all people. We pledge to do our part to help make Utah a more welcoming, inclusive 
and caring community.

This year we can decide to build stronger partnerships—to collaborate on great ideas—and to do together that which we cannot do alone.

Jobs – David Golden
My name is David Golden, I’m the chair of the Salt Lake Chamber Board of Governors and Executive Vice President and Manager of Wells Fargo Commercial Banking’s Mountain Division.

We must decide to focus on job creation to benefit Utah’s unemployed and our underemployed.

We stand ready to work with our elected officials to build on the momentum of our growing economy. One year ago, this Chamber laid out a private sector plan to create 150,000 jobs over five years with the first year’s goal of 18,000 jobs. We not only met that goal, we exceeded it by 25 percent. We continue to support the elements of the Utah Jobs Agenda.

We stand with the majority of our legislators in opposing a general tax increase. We support Governor Herbert’s proposal to eliminate the structural budget deficit. And we ask the Legislature to improve the regulatory environment so that businesses can put Utahns back to work.

We support the restoration of the six million dollars cut over the past three years from the Utah Science Technology and Research initiative. And we support an additional ten million dollars in life science tax credits that will boost an industry that contributes 15 billion dollars in revenue to the state.

Education – Molly Mazzolini
My name is Molly Mazzolini. I’m a partner at Infinite Scale.

We must choose to improve education in our state. We take grate pride in doing more with less, but the time has come to increase the level of investment and innovation in education. By the close of this decade, no less than nine out of every ten Utah third and sixth graders must read at grade level and be proficient in mathematics. For our economy to reach its full potential, 66 percent Utah adults must hold a college degree or skilled trade certificate.

We must choose today to embrace the Prosperity 2020 movement, we can decide in 2012 to truly make education an economic advantage for our state.

Years from now, let our children look back at 2012 as the year when we put their education at the top of our priority list. Let this be the year we decide to put them on the path to enduring prosperity. Let this be the year we make all students college and career ready. Let this be the year we recognize the critical role science, mathematics and engineering will play in the future economy—and let’s teach it to every student.

Now is the time to decide the strength our workforce.

Leadership – Ron Jibson
My name is Ron Jibson, I’m the president and CEO of Questar Corporation and the public policy chair of the Salt Lake Chamber.

Utah is a leader. We actively seek to tackle our own challenges. We must continue to foster this spirit of independence and self-sufficiency.

We must continue to address our broken immigration system. Our state is now looked to as a leader in this area. The Utah Guest Worker Law is a model for the nation but it is not perfect. We must continue to refine it and we support efforts to improve it but it should not be repealed.

Ultimately, immigration is an issue that requires a federal solution. Let this be the year our federal delegation works in concert to push for real reform.

Civic engagement – Carol Hunter
My name is Carol Hunter, I’m vice president of Rocky Mountain Power.

2012 must be the year we all take an active role in our democracy. We have a unique system in our state. On March 13^th and 15^th, Democrats and Republicans will respectively, elect state and county delegates.

Fifty years ago, 78 percent of Utahns voted. That number has fallen to an unacceptable level and now only one in two registered voters will bother going to the polls to participate in our most sacred civic duty.

2012 must be the year we dismiss passivity in our civic responsibility and it must be the year we all play a role in making our aspirations our reality.

Lane Beattie:
We have faced a great challenge and we have risen to meet it. Smart decisions had us better positioned for the economic downturn and smart decisions during the downturn have us positioned to a truly remarkable 2012.

Our future is in our hands. Let us decide today to make the most of the opportunities that lie before us.