Are you paying attention?

By Lea Marquez- Petterson
President/CEO Tucson Hispanic Chamber of Commerce

Our state legislature is in session, but why does this matter to you?

Some of you pay very close attention to what’s going on in Phoenix. Others don’t pay attention at all until it makes a headline in our newspaper. Whether you pay attention or not, our elected officials are making decisions every day that can dramatically impact our businesses and our lives.

As a former business owner, I know how busy your life can be. You’re managing employees, tracking inventory, and worried about paying the bills. When would you have time to also focus on activities at our state capitol?

This is where the value of your Chamber of Commerce comes in. Our Tucson Hispanic Chamber is open to all businesses in Southern Arizona, but it’s worth repeating that members do not have to be Hispanic or speak Spanish to join us. Our mission is to advocate for and provide services that help grow our members businesses in our bilingual and bicultural region.

We have an active Business Advocacy committee that meets every two weeks to discuss issues, initiatives and potential bills that will impact all of our businesses. The committee is open to all of our members to attend once in a while or to attend regularly.

Our chamber does not endorse candidates but instead hosts the Southern Arizona Candidate Academy to encourage people to run for office. We believe that competition is good for all elected positions and will better our community. The Candidate Academy is nonpartisan and our fifth annual program will begin on April 9th. The class runs in the evening for four sessions. This year, we are excited to cohost the Academy with political talk show host, John C Scott who has interviewed nearly every elected official over his career.

Though we do not endorse candidates, we do support and oppose initiatives. Our Board of Directors has worked hard in producing our Legislative Principles that are posted on our website. Our Principles list our position statements on education, economic development, infrastructure and many other issues.

We track and engage in issues at the local, county, state and federal level. Recently we sent a letter to the Pima County Bond Advisory Committee expressing concern about the Pima County bond package. We often hear from our members about their concerns about the state of our roads and the lack of road repair. Unfortunately, the proposed bond package does not prioritize road maintenance. We’ve continued the conversation with county officials to discuss funding mechanisms, priorities in the county budget and potential future revenue sources. Business owners are experiencing an increased cost of business due to the wear and tear on their vehicles. The state of our roads also creates an obstacle in recruiting new businesses to our County.

We have also weighed in recently at the City of Tucson regarding annexation. For many years, in fact decades, we have discussed the large amount unincorporated land in our County. In comparison, Maricopa County is almost entirely incorporated. Why does this matter? The state funding model provides additional dollars to jurisdictions that are incorporated. With more than 300,000 people living outside the Tucson city limits, it is estimated that Tucson loses about $70 million each year. These funds would go a long way in repairing our roads and bettering our community. The City has launched a grassroots effort to work neighborhood by neighborhood to discuss annexation. We support this effort and are working closely with them on several neighborhoods.

At the state level, our state legislature produces over 2000 potential bills a year. We track the bills closely and monitor their activity in our Business Advocacy committee. Recently, we have engaged in a bill that would create an inequitable financial impact to TUSD. The desegregation bill as it is called was written by a legislator who was not aware of the impact on our largest school district. Our chamber has requested a modification in the language of the bill. We have also spoken up on tax reform bills and regulatory bills that are currently in committee. To learn more about our activity, please sign up to receive our free email newsletter. The newsletter will tell you about advocacy activity as well as events and good news about our member businesses.

We are also excited to announce that our chamber will be hosting Governor Doug Ducey at his legislative luncheon in Tucson on May 5. At this luncheon he will discuss the recent legislative session and other important issues to our state. Registration and sponsorship packages are available at www.TucsonHispanicChamber.org.

The Tucson Hispanic chamber is a resource for your business. We provide programs and events to help you grow your business, reach the fast-growing Hispanic market, and advocate on behalf of your business. To learn more – please visit, TucsonHispanicchamber.org.