Chamber Day brings tone of bipartisanship, shared legislative priorities

Lawmakers and business leaders expressed a desire to work together to move Kentucky forward during the 20th annual Kentucky Chamber Day dinner.

 

A crowd of more than 1,300 business leaders, legislators and advocates came together in Lexington Thursday night to talk about where Kentucky stands and how the state can improve.

 

Kentucky Chamber President and CEO David Adkisson spoke of the positive growth in the economy and the encouraging bipartisan tone among legislators to accomplish important tasks. Adkisson said during the 2015 session, the Kentucky Chamber wants to see more policies that will make the state more competitive.

 

“Not surprisingly, the business community wants to see more growth, more jobs created, more commerce.  On behalf of tens of thousands of employers across the state, the Kentucky Chamber advocates policies that will make the economic climate of Kentucky more competitive … not just with surrounding states, but with the world,” Adkisson told the crowd.

 

Among the issues the Chamber is advocating for during the new session: public-private partnerships (P3) is a policy the state needs for transportation projects; local option sales taxes to allow local communities to complete projects they need; right to work legislation to attract businesses to the state; education and workforce improvements; legislation to address the state’s heroin issue; and many others.

 

Many of the legislative leaders speaking at the event also shared some of the same priorities as House Speaker Greg Stumbo, Senate President Robert Stivers, Senate Minority Leader Ray Jones and House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover all spoke of the need for legislation to deal with the heroin issue and a P3 bill.

 

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear spoke of the positive advancements the state has made in recent years as he approaches the end of his final year in office. However, similar to his State of the Commonwealth Address, Beshear also laid out many of the same 2015 priorities shared by the Kentucky Chamber.

 

If you missed the event Thursday night, KET coverage of the event will be broadcast 8 pm ET at on Monday, Jan. 12. See video and more coverage of the event by cn|2 Pure Politics here.