Chambers push lawmakers on jobs, childcare, healthcare
Economic development, education, workforce development, childcare and healthcare were among the number of concerns East Tennessee Chambers of Commerce want addressed in state legislature.
Six area Chambers gathered for a Regional Legislative Agenda Breakfast in Hilton Knoxville Airport, Alcoa, Friday, Jan. 30, to collaborate on what issues they want to bring before Tennessee General Assembly. One of those was Farragut West Knox Chamber, represented by its president/CEO Julie Blaylock.
“I thought the Blount Partnership did a wonderful job this year hosting the legislative breakfast,” Blaylock said. “I thought it was a fantastic event.
“I heard there were 400 to 450 attendees,” she said. “Our Chamber was certainly grateful to be represented.
“We brought a contingency of about 40 attendees with us, including our board of directors, Knox County staff, Town of Farragut elected officials and staff, as well as several of our business members. LCUB was with us. Our legislative committee representatives came with us.
“I thought it was a great morning,” Blaylock said. “I thought it was wonderful for them to have Mark Cate [owner of Stones River Group, formerly serving as Gov. Bill Haslam’s chief of staff] facilitate questions and answers from the legislators.”
With the Regional Legislative Agenda, the document and then the breakfast, “every year there are six Chambers that collaborate to create the legislative agenda document, and each Chamber now takes a turn hosting the breakfast and where it is presented,” Blaylock said. This year, Blount Partnership hosted the event.
“We got involved in it about three or four years ago,” she said. “So, for 30 years, it was the Knoxville Chamber, the Blount Partnership and the Oak Ridge Chamber.”
Then, the FWKCC was added a few years ago. Anderson County Chamber also joined in, and this year Loudon County Chamber joined the group.
“We all work together on the legislative agenda, which, for us, is the most important piece,” Blaylock said.
During the annual breakfast, “we come together and look at critical issues affecting all of our businesses in our communities at large,” she said. As Chambers, “we are very focused on issues that matter to businesses and their workforce.
She explained the agenda breaks out into different sectors, such as economic development, education, workforce development, healthcare, infrastructure, entrepreneurship and small business.
“But we’ve added some sections the last couple years,” Blaylock said. “Last year, we added a separate section on childcare.
“That used to be wrapped up in another section, [but] we felt it had become such a big issue for many of our employers and their employees that it needed its own section,” she said.
“So it now stands alone with initiatives and efforts that we want legislators to take action on.
“This year, we added a section on artificial intelligence and we also added a section this year on housing affordability, which didn’t exist before,” Blaylock said.
Then, “what we do is the Chambers meet every couple weeks during the year to talk about what got worked on the prior legislative year — what can we cross of the list — what has yet to be improved upon and what new issues have come up.”
