I had the opportunity this week to speak before the Swedish-American Chambers of Commerce about the state of the Arizona economy and what’s happening in policymaking circles. Later in my presentation I touched on immigration. To get a sense of how much the attendees knew about the issue, I asked how many of the people…
Read MoreEmployees should be able to decide whether they want to support an employer’s or union’s political agenda. On that, the business community is in agreement. Union members’ rights should be protected by ensuring that union funds used for operational expenses are segregated from the funds used for political purposes, while seeing to it that union…
Read More[Posted By: Katie Whitchurch, Director of Events] On Thursday, March 24th we are very excited to host a special seminar on IBM Corporation’s outstanding resource for small and medium sized businesses, the SME Toolkit. This event will take place at the ASU SkySong campus beginning at 9:00 a.m. and will allow participants the opportunity to…
Read MoreThe Great Recession has taken its toll on Arizona’s Unemployment Insurance Fund. In fact, the demands placed on the fund have been so great due to high job losses that the fund last year became insolvent. The UI system is one in which state and federal government, under the Federal Unemployment Tax Act (FUTA), come…
Read MorePerhaps the federal government is operating in an alternate reality. A March 5 article in the Wall Street Journal, “Local Governments Keep on Paring Payrolls,” looks at how states and localities last month shed a combined 30,000 jobs, and payroll pressures will become more pronounced as federal stimulus dollars soon run out. But the last…
Read Moreby Glenn Hamer February 11, 2011 Speaker of the House Kirk Adams is walking the talk at the Capitol with his calls for major reforms to the state’s pension system. The speaker has already withdrawn from the Elected Officials Retirement Plan, and this week he introduced House Bill 2726 (public retirement systems; plan design) which aims to put the state’s…
Read MoreJanuary 27, 2011 Glenn Hamer I’m writing this week from Washington, D.C., where I find myself snowed-in. I was supposed to be home Wednesday night, but Mother Nature had other plans. I’m now more familiar with Reagan National Airport’s dining options than I ever thought I would be. But the snowstorm has given me plenty…
Read MoreJanuary 20, 2011 Glenn Hamer Recovering the nearly 300,000 jobs the state has lost in this Great Recession is at the top of the Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry’s legislative agenda in 2011.We’re working with legislative leaders and the governor to help craft a package that will create an environment that helps attract and…
Read MoreJanuary 13, 2011 Glenn Hamer The Arizona Chamber of Commerce and Industry last week submitted comments in response to draft regulations published by the Arizona Department of Health Services regarding the management of the distribution and use of medical marijuana in our state under the Medical Marijuana Act. The Chamber opposed the medical marijuana initiative when it…
Read MoreJanuary 05, 2011 Glenn Hamer I started off the first business day of the New Year on Monday by turning to the opinion page ofThe Arizona Republic, where writer Alicia Russell rang in 2011 by cheering the recent $.10 hike in the hourly minimum wage. Russell was the treasurer for the 2006 ballot campaign that allowed…
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