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Issues & AdvocacyLegislative Agenda

2023 Legislative Agenda

The Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry has a number of legislative priorities to improve the business community and move our state forward.

overview

Because we know that size equals strength when it comes to lobbying, we use our power to advocate for policies that improve the lives of employees and their employers.

Because we know that size equals strength when it comes to lobbying, we use our power to advocate for policies that improve the lives of employees and their employers.

DOWNLOAD THE 2023 AGENDA

agenda topics

Here are the topics we’re focusing on in the 2023 legislative agenda.

  • Increase transparency in asbestos litigation by requiring trust claim disclosure
  • Eliminate joint and several liability 
  • Update statute of limitations in certain civil cases
  • Ensure the selection of Missouri judges is open and fair
  • Establish statute of repose
  • Strengthen Missouri’s employment arbitration climate
  • Curtail litigation lending
  • Clarify the collateral source rule
  • Protect innovators from unfairly imposed liability
  • Provide scheduling and filing deadline certainty
  • Encourage entrepreneurial and small-business development
  • Encourage corporate growth and attraction
  • Utilize expanded broadband deployment to support economic development statewide
  • Promote tourism programs and protect tourism funding
  • Promote rural development
  • Adequately fund all levels of education
  • Support a comprehensive workforce development approach
  • Maximize business engagement; provide adequate education infrastructure funding
  • Support adequate infrastructure funding
  • Support broad-based public education reform
  • E​​nsure Missouri has reliable, resilient and affordably-priced energy and water
  • Promote a balanced and modernized approach to regulation
  • Support pipeline use
  • Implement responsible water quality standards and support Missouri-based solutions
  • Use reasonable renewable energy standards
  • Support reasonable and consistent taxation of utilities
  • Protect Missouri’s environment by supporting state regulation of coal combustion residuals (CCR)
  • Improve access to quality health care for all Missourians
  • Ensure our health care system is prepared for times of crisis
  • Embrace innovation and meaningful transparency initiatives
  • Maximize health care funding
  • Limit government-mandated health insurance benefits
  • Protect and strengthen workers’ compensation reforms
  • Reform the workers’ compensation administrative law judge (ALJ) selection process
  • Pass unemployment insurance reforms
  • Protect employers from unfair and harmful workplace rules
  • Provide state-level safeguards for joint employers
  • Strengthen employers’ intellectual property rights
  • Bring clarity to independent contractor agreements
  • Clarify the treatment of arbitration clauses in employment contracts
  • Implement right-to-work
  • Implement paycheck protection
  • Reform Missouri’s prevailing wage law
  • Support workplace marijuana policies
  • Oppose governmental mandates on workplace policies 

     

  • Deploy evidence-based and hot spot approaches to crime reduction
  • Increase and protect tools to support policing
  • Address substance misuse and mental health
  • Reduce recidivism
  • Improve training and employment opportunities for incarcerated individuals
  • Increase public safety staffing
  • Increase prosecutorial consistency and transparency 
     

     
     
  • Reform tax policy including providing revenue neutrality, eliminating/avoiding double taxation, minimizing the shift of the ultimate tax burden, providing horizontal equity, providing administrative simplicity, providing a broad base, and eliminating multiple fees and surcharges
  • Reform tax administration
  • Phase in full deduction for the federal income tax
  • Expand state sales tax exemptions
  • Equalize local tax treatment
  • Prohibit corporate tax information disclosures
  • Adjust property taxes
  • Maintain appropriate state tax add-back list
  • Allow single remittance of local taxes and fees
  • Provide tax incentives for S corporation formation of employee stock ownership plans
  • Maximize Missouri’s position as an emerging tech hub
  • Build a long-term talent pipeline
  • Prioritize cybersecurity
  • Support investment opportunities
  • Utilize expanded broadband deployment to support economic development statewide
  • Leverage high-tech manufacturing advantage to bolster national security
  • Oppose patchwork privacy standards
  • Increase access to STEM education
  • Modernize public sector IT systems
  • Support smart infrastructure projects
  • Educate, advocate for the future of transportation in Missouri, including providing revenue neutrality, highways, ports and rivers, rail, air, site redevelopment, infrastructure workforce and recommendations for the future
  • Support primary seat belt law
  •  We support a broad-spectrum approach to upskilling and right-skilling our state’s workforce to address labor shortages and help businesses’ growth. This includes adequately funding our existing workforce development programs, like Fast Track and Missouri One Start job training, and advocating for new policies that are responsive and flexible to businesses’ needs to recruit and retain skilled workers today while anticipating
    employment needs of the future.  
    Small businesses are the backbone of our economy. Therefore, Missouri should increase access to funding and other resources for small businesses, start-ups, and entrepreneurs to help them confidently start, grow or expand.
  • Child care is a pivotal workforce development issue. Working parents’ re-entry into the workforce can be hindered by child care provider shortages for children of all ages, but especially for those under two years old. Missouri should increase the accessibility and availability of high quality child care for working parents.
  • Economic development drives growth, creates new job opportunities and facilitates an improved quality of life. Missouri should embrace an all-of-the-above approach in utilizing and offering innovative economic development tools and tax incentives
    to help its local communities and businesses thrive.
  • Public transportation is both a workforce and economic development tool in our communities statewide. We must adequately fund multi-modal public transit systems so they are more accessible and efficient for residents and visitors alike.
  •   A safer Missouri is a stronger Missouri. The state should dedicate adequate funding for public safety. This includes funding for the expansion of mental health and substance abuse treatment and prevention programs, public safety staffing enhancement efforts and innovative tools to reduce crime.
  • A strong education system is key to Missouri’s long-term economic health and competitiveness. We support efforts to adequately fund all levels of education, from elementary to higher education. Additionally, we should increase funding and accessibility of student scholarship programs, like the A+ program.
  • The state has a detrimental reputation for its unfair legal climate. Therefore, Missouri must implement significant reforms to ensure our legal climate is not an impediment to economic competitiveness. We support a wide variety of reforms, including modifying the statute of limitations, to bring more fairness to our court system.
  •   We support comprehensive efforts to maximize Missouri’s position as an emerging technology hub. By enacting innovative policies, increasing investment and training our workforce for high-tech jobs, our state can grow its global tech and innovation footprint.
  • State investment in tourism supports economic growth, job creation and tax revenue. We support increasing funding of tourism promotion and other tourism-related programs, as it would positively impact many communities across the state.
  • The state has a once-in-a-generation opportunity to make significant investments due to a very positive ongoing budgetary outlook. We encourage Missouri’s leaders to utilize these funding opportunities to make investments that have a transformational impact on communities statewide. Conversely, we oppose efforts to risk vital funding streams needed for our state’s infrastructure. The state’s economic growth depends on having reliable and modern infrastructure systems, which includes our vast network of roads and bridges.
  • We strongly support a system of free enterprise and oppose efforts by the government to intervene in business decisions. The government should let business decide how to run its own workplace(s).
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