AMC Policy Agenda

2011 Policy Agenda

Principles:

  • Ensure that Arizona provides a globally competitive environment for the manufacturing sector that promotes innovation and furthers investment in research and development.
  • Create an economical and understandable regulatory and legal environment that facilitates manufacturing operations.
  • Support a taxation system that promotes capital investments and improves the manufacturing sector’s global competitiveness.
  • Improve employer access to highly skilled employees. Support strong accountability measures, innovative management techniques, enhanced academic rigor, and efficient use of resources to improve education throughout Arizona.
  • Reform Arizona’s workers compensation system to improve employee care and ensure cost efficient use of employer dollars.
  • Support the development of a multi-modal transportation system to facilitate the movement of goods and services.
  • Support a market-driven health care system that makes it easy for employers to provide health insurance benefits for their employees.

Goals:

Short Term:

Reform Arizona’s Tax System to Make It More Competitive for Manufacturers:

Support efforts to reform Arizona’s tax system to encourage business investment and the creation of high wage jobs by reducing business property tax rates and income tax rates paid by manufacturers. Support a comprehensive job creation package to make Arizona’s tax system globally competitive in order to aid in economic recovery, fiscal stability, and industry diversification. Specific reforms include:

  • Reduce Business Property Taxes:  Support efforts to phase down the assessment ratio for commercial property so the rates applied to manufacturing property are closer to the rates levied on the residential property.  Support legislation that would phase down or eliminate the statewide property tax in a fiscally sound manner.  Support further improvements to Arizona’s business personal property tax system by improving the accelerated depreciation schedules. 
  • Reduce Corporate Income Rates and Authorize Elective 100% Single Sales Factor:  Phase down the corporate income tax rate so that it is regionally, nationally, and internationally competitive. Build on the economic development success Arizona had with the 80% super-weighted sales factor legislation by allowing businesses to opt into a 100% sales factor system.
  • Oppose Efforts to Expand the Sales Tax Base to Services Impacting Manufacturing:  Oppose measures that would place additional taxes on manufacturers’ business processes.  Expanding the sales taxes to certain services would require new taxes on inputs to the manufacturing process.  

Protect and Enhance the Job Training Program:  Support legislation that protects the Job Training Fund for incumbent and new employer training needs from sweeps and transfers.  Endorse efforts to create additional job training incentives for new employment.

Continue Regulatory Reform:  Continue efforts to reform state, county and local government regulatory systems to improve flexibility for businesses and reduce regulatory costs.  Work with state agencies to streamline permitting process and eliminate unneeded or duplicative rules and regulations.  Champion efforts to allow for more electronic filings of permits, and work with agencies to redesign their regulatory processes to make them more user-friendly for the regulated community.

Support enhanced protections for companies that voluntarily audit their regulatory compliance, then self-disclose and remediate the potential violations in a timely manner. 

Work with the county governments and state policy makers to expand many of regulatory reforms concepts adopted at the state level to local governments either through state law changes or local level reforms.      

Enact Permit Fee Reform:  The Legislature and Governor have directed many regulatory agencies important to the manufacturing sector to fully fund their entire agency budgets through permit fees.  Ensure that new or increased fees are appropriately set in a transparent manner and that state agencies are streamlining regulatory processes to the maximum extent possible.  Champion reductions in the overhead charged to agencies and permittees by the Arizona Department of Administration and encourage the aggressive use of general permits, on-line permitting and the use of private contractors as a mechanism to hold costs to a minimum. 

Curb Union Organizing Abuses:  Continue aggressive efforts to protect employee rights through a multi-pronged package:

  • Advocate Against the Federal Employee Free Choice Act (Card Check).  Stop Card Check at the Congressional level and protect against any actions of the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB) that could reduce the rights of employers and weaken the right of employees to a secret ballot. Oppose mandatory federal government arbitration for union contract negotiations.
  • Strengthen Arizona’s Labor and Employment laws.   Support efforts to provide businesses with a streamlined mechanism to protect their private property rights against trespassing from unions that are protesting and engaged in unauthorized organizational efforts.  Support statutory protections that allow Arizona employees to protect their paychecks from automatic withdrawals to unions and other organizations after the date they terminate their relationship with these groups.  Create new mechanisms to ensure that employees are well educated in their rights related to inappropriate union organizing efforts.

Support Further Tort Reform:  Continue to improve Arizona’s tort and legal system so that it is viewed favorably in the marketplace.  Champion the development of reasonable caps on appeal bonds posted by businesses that are appealing adverse lower court decisions. 

Develop New Protections Against Workers’ Compensation Fraud and Eliminate Barriers that Limit Employees’ Ability to Return to Work:  Improve Arizona’s workers’ compensation system to ensure that it provides the needed benefits and assistance to injured workers in a cost effective manner.  Improve the ability of employers and their agents to verify the existence of any unreported secondary employment of injured workers and ensure that any work accommodations for injured workers that are consistent with the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) are not considered sheltered employment.   

Promote the Defense and Aerospace Industries as Economic Engines:  Support efforts to promote Arizona’s defense and aerospace industry with Arizona’s Congressional delegation. Develop policies to enhance the future growth of this critical industry.

Oppose the Discount Pricing Consumer Protection Act:  Protect U.S. brands and U.S. based jobs by opposing efforts to repeal the U.S. Supreme Court’s sound antitrust policy decision in the Leegin case.

Long Term:

Support the Extension of Medical Networks:  Extend the ability to create medical networks from self-insured private employers to other businesses, insurance providers and political subdivisions to reduce costs and facilitate the coordination of patient care.

Support Enhanced Air Transportation Options in Metro-Phoenix:  Promote the Arizona Direct Project, an effort to build Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport into an international cargo hub.  Work with policymakers to remove barriers to its growth.  Create a dialogue with business customers, policymakers and transporters to create the needed infrastructure to make the Phoenix-Mesa Gateway Airport a true cargo port for Arizona.

Increase the Output of Students Who Are Prepared for the Modern Manufacturing Workplace: Protect against cuts to the career and technical education (CTE) programs. Support policies to improve math and science education at all levels so that Arizona students master a baseline of knowledge that will prepare them for post-secondary education and manufacturing careers.   Encourage efforts to make more cost-effective options available for students who are pursuing degrees or certificates at post-secondary institutions.  Support the implementation of the “Dream it Do It” campaign that inspires and educates young people about rewarding careers in manufacturing. 

Promote the Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP): Maintain the long-term viability of the Manufacturing Extension Program (MEP), a federal program managed through the Department of Commerce to provide technical education and training to manufacturers.