2014 State Agenda

The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County We’re grateful to the members of the Madison County Legislative Delegation, Governor Bentley and the other leaders in State Government for their continued support of this region. A healthy partnership with the State is critical to our region’s continued success. Your support of the items listed below will help ensure the continued growth of North Alabama and the Tennessee Valley region.

Support Economic Development Efforts North Alabama’s aerospace and defense technology companies are beginning to feel the impact of federal budget uncertainty and looming cuts. To preserve the highly skilled and educated workforce, we must create new opportunities in commercial markets. Significant growth opportunities exist in North Alabama in the fields of aerospace, advanced manufacturing, cyber security, energy, robotics, telecommunications, modeling and simulation, and biotechnology. It is vitally important that the State Legislature partner on these initiatives for the long term health of the economy in Northern Alabama. u The Chamber supports expansion of our incentives legislation to cover potential

projects on and near military bases and the passage of an Alabama Jobs Creation and Retention Act. The Alabama Jobs Creation and Retention Act will make Alabama more competitive in business and industrial recruitment efforts.

u We appreciate the Legislature’s creation of the Innovation Fund and we ask that guide-

lines for investment be established to ensure that the Fund generates new jobs in the technology sector. We also encourage the Legislature to identify a sustainable source of revenue for the Innovation Fund that would enable it to grow annually. u The Chamber supports a Research and Development Tax Credit. Thirty-six states, in-

cluding all those surrounding Alabama with an income tax, have such a credit. We encourage the local delegation to take a leadership role on this issue.

Huntsville is well positioned to bring significant growth opportunities and additional jobs in cyber security to the North Alabama region. To be successful in securing these additional cyber security missions and jobs, Huntsville must accelerate its development of the cyber workforce. The State should continue to fund and support efforts such as the Huntsville City Schools Digital Initiative; the Cyber Research Consortium, consisting of the seven PhD granting universities in the state of Alabama; and the Alabama Supercomputer Authority. u

Alabama is leading a coalition of five Southeastern States (including GA, MS, LA, and TN) operating under the Alliance for Innovating Manufacturing (AIM) to locate the Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute in Huntsville. The Department of Defense is putting up $70 Million over five years and the AIM team was able to raise nearly $300 Million in matching support. If Alabama is selected as the site for the national center of excellence for advanced digital manufacturing technologies, State support will be critical. u

Education Pre-K-12 Education Programs u The

quality of public education in the State of Alabama is critical to economic development success. Businesses locate, stay and expand where they are able to find educated workers and where their employees can access quality education for their children. Alabama is competing with the rest of the nation and the world for aerospace, automotive, biotech, information technology and other high-growth industries. Alabama’s graduates must be able to perform as well as or better than those in other states and countries. The only way to ensure this is to teach to the same high standards that other states use and evaluate our students against those standards. The Chamber strongly supports the Alabama College and Career Ready Standards which align with the Common Core State Standards. u While public education is not mandatory until age 7 in Alabama, research shows

that the return on investment in pre-K programs is much higher than even elementary and secondary education, especially for at-risk children. The Chamber supports the recommendations of the Pre-K Task Force. Children that attend high quality preK are more likely to enter kindergarten ready to learn, read at grade level by third grade, graduate from high school and go on to college and have higher earnings.

The Chamber encourages state lawmakers to continue pre-K expansion by increasing state investments in First Class Pre-K by $12.8 million each year over the next nine years so that all families have the opportunity to enroll their four-year olds in hiqh quality, voluntary pre-k, raising the line item for the Office of School Readiness from its current (FY2014) level of $28,462,050 to $41,262,050 for FY 2015 as recommended by the Pre-K Task Force. u Alabama remains poised, to authorize charter schools. As the state considers this step, it

will be important to give school districts the same flexibilities that enable charter schools to be successful without negatively impacting the public schools that must educate all students. We ask that the legislature be very cautious about opening individual charter schools within public school districts because of the inequities in management that will exist and the requirement placed on the public schools to educate all students. Passage of the Alabama Accountability Act allows for flexibility contracts between the State Board of Education and local school districts to maximize student achievement. The law also designates a school as a priority school if the school is persistently low performing. The Chamber recommends that the AAA law be modified so that schools can be removed from the priority school list when turnaround measures are in place and being implemented. We ask the legislature to support alternative teacher certification for career readiness programs in STEM related fields. u The Alabama Math, Science and Technology Initiative (AMSTI) budget request for 2015 is $38 million. At the previous level of $28 million, AMSTI was just able to sustain itself – to train newly hired teachers and teachers changing grade levels at existing AMSTI schools. Except under very special circumstances, no new schools have been added and no AMSTI Summer Institutes have been held since 2009. Students who attended AMSTI schools and classes for one year showed gains which compare to an average of 28 extra days of schooling in math. Exploratory results indicated students who attended AMSTI schools and classes for at least two years showed gains which compare to an average of 50 extra days of schooling in math. This success is especially remarkable because AMSTI is in less than 50% of Alabama schools. AMSTI was originally slated for statewide implementation by 2012. There are 320 schools currently requesting to become AMSTI schools that cannot be served due to funding constraints. The Chamber recommends increasing the AMSTI budget to $38 million in order to sustain the program benefiting thousands of students and to begin additional expansion opportunities as proposed by AMSTI.

Support Workforce Development u Plans are underway to establish a comprehensive advanced manufacturing training

center in Huntsville/Madison County that allows the five local public educational agencies and institutions to co-locate a one-stop shop for technical training. The education partners are Calhoun Community College, Drake State Community and Technical College, Huntsville City Schools, Madison City Schools, and Madison County Schools. The initial programs that will be included in this training facility are Industrial Maintenance/Mechatronics, Engineering and Design, Industrial Electricity, Precision Machining, and Automation/Robotics.

The curriculum and instruction will be delivered in various formats including classroom, online, manipulative lab, and cooperative/work-based learning. The curriculum will be aligned with and validated by nationally recognized industry standards. The curriculum will be deployed to maximize seamless articulation from high school to postsecondary level training and eventually to four-year level training. State-of-the-art equipment and facilities will be provided and will emulate the manufacturing environment most common to the industry in the Central North Alabama region. Highly qualified and credentialed faculty will deliver training that will confer high school and postsecondary certificates, diplomas, degrees, and nationally recognized industry credentials.

This training facility will also serve business and industry through non-credit, customized training specific to a particular company or group of companies that support the effort to realize greater efficiency, productivity, and profitability with their existing workforce.

Plans include the option for specialized equipment from local industry to be placed in this training facility for short- or long-term loan to ensure shorter OJT for workers upon entry in their respective workplace environments.

The Chamber supports the continuation and expansion of the statewide Career Coaches program that provides targeted career guidance to middle and high school students. This program has been funded through the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development with the funds going to the two-year colleges in each region. Expansion of this program in coordination with the Department of Elementary and Secondary Education and efforts to ensure the parameters and professionalism of the program would ensure that Alabama students receive effective academic and career guidance in line with the state’s employment projections and high-growth, high-demand occupations. u

u Expanded funding for workforce initiatives focused on incumbent, unemployed,

and new workers. There is a dearth of support for education programs in high-growth/ high-demand industries. Investments are needed in skills required for building the infrastructure that supports the high-tech world: construction, transportation, and hospitality.

Skilled workers with good work habits are greatly needed in those areas. u Free dual enrollment: impending retirement of baby boomer generation means that

very shortly we will be facing a workforce vacuum of skilled workers at all levels. The pathway from youth to worker needs to be shortened to fill that vacuum; dual enrollment enables high school students to simultaneously gain college-level skill sets while fulfilling their high school graduation requirements. State investment in this initiative would ensure that Alabama industries can compete on the global front by having access to an almost immediate infusion of inexpensive, but highly skilled workers with long-term employment potential. Building this labor pool in a short amount of time is critical to the future of Alabama businesses; legislative action on this item would have a significant impact on the state’s economic viability.

Improve Local Infrastructure The Chairman of the Madison County Commission and the Mayors of Huntsville and Madison and Redstone Arsenal Leadership are extremely grateful for the commitments made by Governor Robert Bentley and ALDOT Director John Cooper to fund Madison County infrastructure projects during 2013. Our community has recently made tremendous progress funding infrastructure projects utilizing partnerships with the State, including the recently approved sales tax match funding to initiate $250 million road construction projects and the ATRIP road projects announced by Governor Bentley. The prospect of future rounds of Base Realignment and Closure however, make infrastructure improvements a continuing top priority for the community. The economic success of our region is reliant upon effective transportation networks that can efficiently move commuters, freight, and services that are vital for continued growth and development of the Tennessee Valley, inclusive of Redstone Arsenal. The Chairman of the Madison County Commission and the Mayors of Huntsville and Madison have jointly endorsed the following key projects as the top road priorities for the region: u US 72 East/ARC Corridor V from Shields Road eastward to the county line: Funding

be allocated and appropriated through any remaining ARC dedicated monies and any eligible MAP-21 funds as soon as possible to improve this much needed corridor. u US 231 North and South Overpasses and Corridor Improvements: Funding for the

construction of the scheduled improvements at Memorial Parkway and Mastin Lake Road.

Funding is also requested for the preliminary engineering, right of way acquisition, and construction of the planned capacity projects required for Memorial Parkway and Mountain Gap Road and Winchester Road. u Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd/Northern Bypass: Interchange at Memorial Parkway to Highway 72 East: Funding for this construction project. u Highway 53: Keep this widening project on schedule and continue to build on the prog-

ress made.

u Research Park Boulevard from I-565 to North of US 72:

for this improvement project.

Requested Action: Funding

u I-565/Research Park Boulevard Interchange Modification at Gate 9: Funding these

needed interchange modifications to support exponential growth in traffic at Redstone Arsenal and the adjacent Redstone Gateway development

u US 72 West from Providence Main to County Line Road: Improvements to US 72 West

using National Highway System funds.

u Old Highway 431 bridge replacements u Jeff Road: Fund the widening of Jeff Road from Douglas to Alabama Highway 53. u Madison Boulevard: Improvements through the commercial corridor.

Invest in Higher Education Increase support of UAH & Alabama’s research universities America’s most successful communities have high-quality research universities at the center of their economic and workforce development strategy, and these research universities are singularly most responsible in creating intellectual capacity to enhance today’s work environment as well as to provide the next-generation workforce.

Huntsville and Madison County’s workforce is a critical national asset, and the success of our knowledge-based economy is highly dependent on workers who have at least a fouryear degree, and often advanced degrees. The quality of the workforce at Redstone Arsenal, Cummings Research Park and the region’s economy is inextricably tied to local research universities.

This is a mandate to support Huntsville’s research universities by: improving the recruitment and retention of the best and brightest for our community; attracting the best academic and research talent from around the planet; and investing in the acquisition of state-of-theart research equipment that could be used to open new areas of discovery. The University of Alabama in Huntsville plays a particularly important role in its support of the federal missions of Redstone Arsenal as well as the corporate presence in Cummings Research Park through rigorous academic programs and research leadership.

UAH conducted a year-long strategic planning process to identify the key thrust areas for the present and future of Huntsville and Madison County’s economic well-being. Those disciplines are: Aerospace & Systems Engineering; Biotechnology; Cybersecurity & Big Data; Earth, Atmospheric and Space Science; and Gaming & Entertainment Arts.

The Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County recognizes that The University of Alabama in Huntsville must have increased resources to play an increasingly crucial role for this community and Alabama’s future economic, technological and workforce development.

Prepare Alabama for the next round of BRAC The President and the Secretary of Defense have requested two additional rounds of Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC). While Congress has not yet granted BRAC authority, future rounds of military base consolidation appear to be likely. Redstone has grown substantially as a result of previous rounds of BRAC and is well positioned to gain additional activities in future rounds, making the prospect of future BRACs potentially attractive to the State.

Direct and indirect Military associated employment in Alabama exceeds 177,000 with an economic impact of $17 Billion. In order to support the military bases in Alabama, the Alabama legislature should make every effort to create a “military friendly” environment for the service members and civilians supporting the military. The state should pass legislation that would help veterans, service members, and military families currently living in the State and civilians and military transitioning to Alabama from other States.

Health Care We congratulate the legislature for passing reforms of Alabama’s Medicaid program to control costs and ensure long-term sustainability by improving efficiency, addressing fraud and abuse, and ensuring access to quality health care for the citizens of Alabama. Expanding Medicaid coverage would help to prevent the burden of the uninsured being shifted to the rest of the citizens of Alabama.

Telecommunications Infrastructure Broadband is an essential component of our infrastructure and critical to growing and diversifying our economy. The Huntsville/Madison County Chamber of Commerce supports policies that promote greater access to affordable wired and wireless broadband for all our citizens and businesses; encourages new investment and technology development and deployment across our community; and, promotes greater competition and choices for businesses and consumers. We oppose public policy that leads to excessive government intervention and regulation of the Internet, which will inevitably discourage investment and drive up costs for business and consumers.

For more about the Chamber of Commerce of Huntsville/Madison County, visit us online at www.HSVchamber.org.