Legislative Platform

The Olathe Chamber of Commerce works with its member businesses, the City of Olathe and the Olathe School District in pursuit of a common vision for the Olathe community. The Chamber and its partners support a full service community with a diversified tax base, full employment and exceptional quality of life. The Chamber and its partners believe that this vision is best achieved by effectively funding targeted economic development activities, efficient municipal services and infrastructure and quality schools. Although the Chamber sets legislative priorities on an annual basis, prior to each session of the Legislature, it relies on this vision as a basis both for its own activities and advocacy of governmental action.

Each year the Chamber of Commerce prepares a platform of its priority issues for consideration by legislators representing the Olathe community. We are pleased to have substantial member input in establishing priorities for 2003. Subcommittees on education, transportation, taxation, telecommunication, health care and government efficiency have reported to the Government Affairs Committee which has met three times to reach a consensus recommendation for the Board of Directors. The proposed legislative platform was reviewed by the Executive Committee and proposed to the Board of Directors for its approval. We believe that the resulting platform is the platform of the Chamber’s members acting through their elected Board of Directors.

The top four priorities of the Olathe Chamber of Commerce continue to be transportation, education, economic development enhancements and health care.

• TRANSPORTATION

The Olathe Chamber supports the timely reauthorization of TEA-21 that allows local governments to continue to work closely with state departments of transportation to determine transportation investments in keeping with long-range plans and community priorities.

The Chamber also joins the City of Olathe in its support of a dedicated revenue source to fund highway/rail grade separation projects through the 4.3 cents/gallon diesel fuel tax on railroads which currently is transferred to the general fund.

Oppose reliance on transportation trust funds to maintain a balanced federal budget or for other government spending, and support mechanisms that ensure trust fund monies are used for their intended purpose – maintenance and improvement of the nation’s transportation infrastructure.

• EDUCATION

Support Investment in Quality Education. Commit to Full Funding of Special Education
Fund the original commitment of 40% of excess costs associated with the 1975 Individuals with Disabilities Act with the goal of fully funding Special Education by fiscal year 2007.

The Olathe Chamber of Commerce opposes unfunded or underfunded mandates. The Chamber opposes legislation that hampers units of government in their response to taxpayers’ needs. Unfunded/underfunded mandates place unjustified financial burdens on jurisdictions.

• ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT

Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm, located in Olathe, Kansas, is the last existing stagecoach stop on the Santa Fe Trail that is open to the public. It is a significant historical attraction for the area. By including Mahaffie Stagecoach Stop and Farm in this National Heritage Area, it will enhance the site as both an important national and regional tourist attraction and help preserve a site of great historic value.

Support Tax Reductions for Economic Development
Repeal or further reduce the alternative minimum tax and the capital gains tax to preserve and encourage economic growth, productivity, and jobs.

Oppose initiatives that expand the federal government's role in regulating the private health care marketplace, resulting in significant increases to health coverage costs. Oppose employer mandates and government price controls.

Continue gradual incremental reforms that make health insurance more affordable and more available to businesses and employees, and oppose any expansion of employer liability in health plan lawsuits. The Chamber recognizes the importance of accessible and affordable health care for employers and residents and supports such initiatives that result in an enhanced health care delivery system.

• TAXATION

Make Permanent the Economic Growth and Tax Relief Reconciliation Act of 2001
Remove the 10-year sunset on the tax cuts signed into law in June 2001.

Renew Trade Promotion Authority (formally known as fast track)
Renew the President's "fast-track" trade negotiating authority to ensure continued competitiveness of U.S. exports abroad.

Support Tax Reductions for Small Business
Reduce the maximum tax rate on reinvested earnings of S-corporations, sole proprietorships, and partnerships; simplify and reform tax rules related to forming and maintaining S-corporations; and permit immediate expensing of the full cost of equipment purchases, particularly mandated equipment necessary to meet regulations. Allow immediate 100% deductibility of health insurance costs for self-employed workers.

Consider and carefully study comprehensive federal income tax reform to create a more simple, fair, and stimulative system that promotes savings and investment.

Extend permanently the research & experimentation tax credit to encourage technology-based companies to invest additional resources into development of products and services.

Develop a National Energy Plan
Provide tax credits for buyers of hybrid and alternatively fueled vehicles. Extend tax credits for the use of renewable energy sources. Increase production of oil, gas, coal and expansion of nuclear power sources.

Support Accountability for Regulatory Mandates
Require Congress and federal agencies to quantify and disclose the economic impact of proposed federal mandates on the private sector to improve accountability.

• FEDERAL BUDGET AND SPENDING

Support statutory reform of the budgeting process to facilitate spending reductions, help provide fiscal restraint, and reduce the federal deficit.

• ENVIRONMENTAL REGULATION

Require federal agencies to approve changes to regulatory standards only after a sufficient cost/benefit analysis and risk assessment, based on sound science, have demonstrated the environmental, safety and health benefits are commensurate with economic impact.

Support acceptance of Clean Air Act attainment strategies that are flexible, encourage innovation by the regulated community, and promote compliance with health standards at the lowest social and economic cost.

Encourage voluntary self-audits by permitting employers, where noncompliance is reported and conditions of concern are corrected within a reasonable time, to keep information obtained in audit reports private and privileged.

Oppose further increases in the federal minimum wage because of its negative consequences to business, taxes, and jobs.

Repeal Davis-Bacon Act provisions requiring contractors on federally-funded projects to pay workers a federally-established prevailing wage.

Amend the Occupational Safety and Health Act to permit employees and employers to discuss workplace issues in a non-union setting.

Oppose initiatives that expand the federal government’s oversight or control of employer compensation plans.

Modernize the federal regulatory system to shift its focus away from adversarial punishment to prevention and problem-solving, and implement consistent cost/benefit analyses and risk assessments to gauge the cumulative effect of regulations on business and the economy.

• WORKFORCE/JOB TRAINING

Amend the Fair Labor Standards Act to permit employers and employees to agree to overtime remunerated with either compensatory time off or overtime pay (both accrued at time-and-a-half.)

Oppose efforts to expand FMLA mandates or to enlarge coverage to small employers with less than 50 employees.

Consider initiatives that address growing workforce labor shortages, including raising the cap on special employer-sponsored work visas, revision of immigration standards, removal of tax and benefit disincentives for senior citizens, and creation of a training wage for students.

Simplify tax provisions affecting international trade and investment to enhance American competitiveness and increase trade.

The Olathe Chamber of Commerce works with its member businesses, the City of Olathe and the Olathe School District in pursuit of a common vision for the Olathe community. The Chamber and its partners support a full service community with a diversified tax base, full employment and exceptional quality of life. The Chamber and its partners believe that this vision is best achieved by effectively funding targeted economic development activities, efficient municipal services and infrastructure and quality schools. Although the Chamber sets legislative priorities on an annual basis, prior to each session of the Legislature, it relies on this vision as a basis both for its own activities and advocacy of governmental action.

The Chamber supports the efforts of the following entities and generally concurs with their legislative platforms.

Top Priority Legislative Objectives

1. Review of KHIA risk pool and proposed action to establish business/health care partnerships in support of long term stability.
2. Legislation providing for medical savings accounts (sometimes referred to as medical IRAs) and continued exploration of health care cost containment methods such as the current Medicaid managed care pilot programs and health care purchasing cooperatives for small employers.
3. Repeal of the Collateral Source Rule to allow presentation of evidence of a plaintiff’s existing medical coverage in a court case involving injury.
4. Careful scrutiny of any legislation, which would expand, mandated benefits or limit a health plan’s ability to be selective in choice of providers.
5. Review proposed activity of Business Health Partnership to encourage the use of the private insurance industry versus the creation of additional government bureaucracy in offering health insurance alternatives to small business employers.

STANDING POSITIONS