2008 State Agenda

Bob Riley, Governor of Alabama Jim Folsom, Jr., Lieutenant Governor of Alabama Seth Hammett, Speaker of the House

(334) 242-7100 (334) 242-7900 (334) 242-7668

Madison County Delegation Senate Hinton Mitchem, President Pro Tempore Lowell Barron Tom Butler Parker Griffith Arthur Orr House

of

(334) 242-7876 (334) 242-7858 (334) 242-7854 (334) 242-7846 (334) 242-7891

Representatives

Mike Ball Laura Hall Randy Hinshaw Mac McCutcheon Howard Sanderford Sue Schmitz Butch Taylor

(334) 242-7683 (334) 242-7688 (334) 242-7733 (334) 242-7705 (334) 242-4368 (334) 242-7704 (334) 242-7600

Huntsville/Madison County Legislative Office

(256) 539-5441

Montgomery Information Senate House of Representatives

www.HuntsvilleAlabamaUSA.com

(334) 242-7800 (334) 242-7600

T

he

Huntsville/Madison

county area is experiencing one of the greatest

surges in economic growth in its

200-year

history. In the last seven years,

28,000 new jobs have been announced in Madison County – more jobs in fact than the other major urban areas in the State combined have announced during this same period. As these BRAC and other jobs relocate to the community in the next few years, our ability to absorb this growth will stretch the area’s infrastructure and workforce capacity to its limits. State support, as outlined below, will be critical to the region’s continued prosperity. over

Workforce Recruitment The Chamber has developed a comprehensive workforce recruitment plan to address workforce issues associated with BRAC and other economic growth in the Huntsville/ Madison County area. The recruiting plan targets engineering, information technology and advanced manufacturing (including supply chain and logistics) workers. The plan recommends hosting national consortia in needed skills in Huntsville to promote available jobs and quality of life; participating in targeted career fairs and conferences in other communities across the country; recruiting recent college graduates by going on campus at universities; and buying advertising in select national print and electronic outlets. The total cost to implement this recruitment campaign is projected to be approximately $1.8 million.

Workforce Development / Education Workforce recruitment efforts alone will not be sufficient to sustain the workforce demands that our region will face in the years to come. Additional investments are required to help develop the workforce needed by area employers. National and international competition is at an all-time high for these highly sought workers. In order to support and sustain the growth we have achieved, we must take bold measures

to ensure that we develop the necessary workforce.

• Four-year college education – Our community faces a CRITICAL shortage of engineers. A study conducted on behalf of the Chamber determined that the most successful strategy to increase engineering graduates would be to focus additional resources on those 50 percent of the engineering students who would otherwise drop out of engineering. The Chamber recommends additional scholarships to pay state school tuition reimbursement and housing assistance for students while in co-op rotations or internships. These programs would be offered to engineering students who agree to work in the State for a period of time following graduation. The funding for this strategy is based on cohort groups of 200 over a four-year period (three years in school and co-operative education/internship, fourth year as a placement), with the cumulative number of students reaching 800.

• Two-year, post-high school education programs – Many of the jobs coming to our region do not require a four-year college degree. However, many parents, students and teachers are unaware of the opportunities available through technical education and associates degrees, leaving many community college programs underutilized. Our community is facing a short-

age of nurses, welders, machine tooling technicians among others. The Chamber is working with the Valley Innovation Alliance to promote career awareness in highgrowth industries, funded through the U.S. Department of Labor’s WIRED initiative.

The Chamber recommends that these activities be supported and sustained through alignment of resources at the state level.

• K-12 education programs – The Chamber endorses full implementation and funding of the Alabama Mathematics, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) that provides inquiry-based, hands-on math and science instruction to K-12 students and the corresponding professional development and support to teachers. The Chamber also supports continued funding for the Engineering Academy Initiative for Alabama which provides targeted engineering instruction to high school students.

Infrastructure Sufficient road infrastructure to support growth in the region continues to be among the highest concerns facing the region. We are grateful to Governor Riley and the State for making several important modifications to the State’s Transportation Improvement Program to advance several critical roads projects into the next few years. The current plan would invest approximately $250 million in roads in the region through the end of Governor Riley’s term.

The Southern Bypass continues to be an important infrastructure project for our region and the state as a part of the Memphis, Huntsville, Atlanta Highway. Federal funding is being sought to begin work on this important project.

Even with these important changes to the State’s road construction plans, our road situation continues to be of great concern.

The following construction projects are

needed to keep traffic flowing on, to and around the Redstone Arsenal.

1. Memorial Parkway – Overpasses and interchanges at Mastin Lake Road and Mt. Gap Road 2. Widen Highway 72 West to Nance Road 3. Add an interchange at U.S. 72 East and Ryland Pike, utilizing ARC Funding 4. Accelerate Winchester Road widening from Naugher to Bell Factory to 2012 5. Widen Martin Road on the Arsenal west from Rideout Road to Gate 7

Biotechnology The not-for-profit HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is the cornerstone of the CRP Biotechnology Campus and home to an emerging team of world-class researchers and educators. Twelve companies are already in place as institute tenants, effectively filling available space in the current facility and stepping up momentum toward establishment of new facilities and tenants on the 120-acre campus. Continued support from the state is sought to assist in national/international recruiting efforts for biotech and medical device companies.

Economic Development Policy The current ADO approach to recruitment of mega-projects calls for the local region to fund approximately one third of the monetary incentives in the total incentive package. We encourage ADO to allow more flexibility with this funding approach by giving consideration to local government’s investment in the development of infrastructure, the purchase of land in support of these projects and the level of economic activity in our community.

T

he

Huntsville/Madison

county area is experiencing one of the greatest

surges in economic growth in its

200-year

history. In the last seven years,

28,000 new jobs have been announced in Madison County – more jobs in fact than the other major urban areas in the State combined have announced during this same period. As these BRAC and other jobs relocate to the community in the next few years, our ability to absorb this growth will stretch the area’s infrastructure and workforce capacity to its limits. State support, as outlined below, will be critical to the region’s continued prosperity. over

Workforce Recruitment The Chamber has developed a comprehensive workforce recruitment plan to address workforce issues associated with BRAC and other economic growth in the Huntsville/ Madison County area. The recruiting plan targets engineering, information technology and advanced manufacturing (including supply chain and logistics) workers. The plan recommends hosting national consortia in needed skills in Huntsville to promote available jobs and quality of life; participating in targeted career fairs and conferences in other communities across the country; recruiting recent college graduates by going on campus at universities; and buying advertising in select national print and electronic outlets. The total cost to implement this recruitment campaign is projected to be approximately $1.8 million.

Workforce Development / Education Workforce recruitment efforts alone will not be sufficient to sustain the workforce demands that our region will face in the years to come. Additional investments are required to help develop the workforce needed by area employers. National and international competition is at an all-time high for these highly sought workers. In order to support and sustain the growth we have achieved, we must take bold measures

to ensure that we develop the necessary workforce.

• Four-year college education – Our community faces a CRITICAL shortage of engineers. A study conducted on behalf of the Chamber determined that the most successful strategy to increase engineering graduates would be to focus additional resources on those 50 percent of the engineering students who would otherwise drop out of engineering. The Chamber recommends additional scholarships to pay state school tuition reimbursement and housing assistance for students while in co-op rotations or internships. These programs would be offered to engineering students who agree to work in the State for a period of time following graduation. The funding for this strategy is based on cohort groups of 200 over a four-year period (three years in school and co-operative education/internship, fourth year as a placement), with the cumulative number of students reaching 800.

• Two-year, post-high school education programs – Many of the jobs coming to our region do not require a four-year college degree. However, many parents, students and teachers are unaware of the opportunities available through technical education and associates degrees, leaving many community college programs underutilized. Our community is facing a short-

age of nurses, welders, machine tooling technicians among others. The Chamber is working with the Valley Innovation Alliance to promote career awareness in highgrowth industries, funded through the U.S. Department of Labor’s WIRED initiative.

The Chamber recommends that these activities be supported and sustained through alignment of resources at the state level.

• K-12 education programs – The Chamber endorses full implementation and funding of the Alabama Mathematics, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) that provides inquiry-based, hands-on math and science instruction to K-12 students and the corresponding professional development and support to teachers. The Chamber also supports continued funding for the Engineering Academy Initiative for Alabama which provides targeted engineering instruction to high school students.

Infrastructure Sufficient road infrastructure to support growth in the region continues to be among the highest concerns facing the region. We are grateful to Governor Riley and the State for making several important modifications to the State’s Transportation Improvement Program to advance several critical roads projects into the next few years. The current plan would invest approximately $250 million in roads in the region through the end of Governor Riley’s term.

The Southern Bypass continues to be an important infrastructure project for our region and the state as a part of the Memphis, Huntsville, Atlanta Highway. Federal funding is being sought to begin work on this important project.

Even with these important changes to the State’s road construction plans, our road situation continues to be of great concern.

The following construction projects are

needed to keep traffic flowing on, to and around the Redstone Arsenal.

1. Memorial Parkway – Overpasses and interchanges at Mastin Lake Road and Mt. Gap Road 2. Widen Highway 72 West to Nance Road 3. Add an interchange at U.S. 72 East and Ryland Pike, utilizing ARC Funding 4. Accelerate Winchester Road widening from Naugher to Bell Factory to 2012 5. Widen Martin Road on the Arsenal west from Rideout Road to Gate 7

Biotechnology The not-for-profit HudsonAlpha Institute for Biotechnology is the cornerstone of the CRP Biotechnology Campus and home to an emerging team of world-class researchers and educators. Twelve companies are already in place as institute tenants, effectively filling available space in the current facility and stepping up momentum toward establishment of new facilities and tenants on the 120-acre campus. Continued support from the state is sought to assist in national/international recruiting efforts for biotech and medical device companies.

Economic Development Policy The current ADO approach to recruitment of mega-projects calls for the local region to fund approximately one third of the monetary incentives in the total incentive package. We encourage ADO to allow more flexibility with this funding approach by giving consideration to local government’s investment in the development of infrastructure, the purchase of land in support of these projects and the level of economic activity in our community.

Bob Riley, Governor of Alabama Jim Folsom, Jr., Lieutenant Governor of Alabama Seth Hammett, Speaker of the House

(334) 242-7100 (334) 242-7900 (334) 242-7668

Madison County Delegation Senate Hinton Mitchem, President Pro Tempore Lowell Barron Tom Butler Parker Griffith Arthur Orr House

of

(334) 242-7876 (334) 242-7858 (334) 242-7854 (334) 242-7846 (334) 242-7891

Representatives

Mike Ball Laura Hall Randy Hinshaw Mac McCutcheon Howard Sanderford Sue Schmitz Butch Taylor

(334) 242-7683 (334) 242-7688 (334) 242-7733 (334) 242-7705 (334) 242-4368 (334) 242-7704 (334) 242-7600

Huntsville/Madison County Legislative Office

(256) 539-5441

Montgomery Information Senate House of Representatives

www.HuntsvilleAlabamaUSA.com

(334) 242-7800 (334) 242-7600