SC Chamber of Commerce 2010 Competitiveness Agenda

January 12, 2010: Mr. Rawl became President and CEO of SC Chamber on Oct. 1, 2008. There are 6,500 member companies in the Chamber, 90% of which are small businesses. He opened his presentation by stating that “We are here to stir things up.” He used Kyra’s silver spoon as an object lesson. He said that there needs to be a greater amount of accountability in Columbia, making sure that legislators come to our point of view. Mr. Rawl stated that the most important issue in the state is JOBS, that more jobs need to be created because we have one of the highest unemployment rates in the country. Other states have better jobs, more sustainable and long term jobs than we do. The arrival of GE and Boeing offer a great chance to turn things around and move forward. Mr. Rawl had several ideas that he feels are crucial to promoting our state; “the real thing we must do is elect a Governor that is pro-business, one who goes to bed at night thinking about how to bring new jobs into the state. Additionally, “we need a more energetic Dept. of Commerce, to develop more jobs. We need to develop more comprehensive tax reform policies. This would primarily have a major impact on the growth of small businesses”.

In the speaker’s opinion we need more economic development in the state. We are in the bottom 10 of all the states in corporate class action lawsuits. There needs to be an expansion of our port. This is not just an issue for Charleston, but for the entire state economy. Stabilize the port! The Dept. of Commerce does not have enough resources to develop new jobs in the state. The cost of energy is also a concern in the state.

Other major issues that Rawl mentioned were the quality of employees . Where are we going to get a skilled workforce? The State demand for jobs will increase by 16% in the next 20 years. The state unemployment rate is currently at 12.3%. A reform of the SC Employment Security Commission is needed. There is a strain on our economic system because so many people are unemployed and receiving unemployment benefits.

Healthcare was another area of concern Mr. Rawl discussed. SC healthcare costs are the second highest expenditures for businesses after payroll. 98% of medium and large employers provide healthcare for their employees, and 720,000 people are uninsured in the state of SC. SC cigarette tax is 7 cents per pack. The state needs to raise that by 50 cents a pack to help pay for healthcare, Rawl is encourages that the cigarette tax will pass this year.

Rawl feels that government restructuring is another must. There has been a $2 Billion reduction in state revenue in the past two years and more constitutional officers need to be eliminated. The state needs to jointly elect the Governor and Lt. Governor and our state expense forcasting models have been flawed and procedures need to be improved. Rawl said that we need to protect SC workers from the dangerous federal employee Free Choice Act, or, “Card Check.” One other major issue Mr. Rawls spoke briefly about was CAP and TRADE. Mr. Rawl stated that CAP and TRADE would mean corporations would either fail or move off shore. Many industries would move to other countries. This would be an enormous burden on our citizens.

Submitted by: Bill Christian, Keyway Committee