Government/Public Policy

The Government Affairs and Public Policy Division works with all levels of government and community leadership to ensure a rich environment for entrepreneurial success. The Division functions as the public policy and legislative advocate for its members and the business community within the Pikes Peak region. The Division serves as a proactive watchdog on behalf of business to identify burdensome regulations and overreaching mandates to business that stifle growth and opportunity. The membership of the Chamber serves as a collective and powerful voice to promote pro-business issues.

The Government Affairs and Public Policy Division also CONNECTS business to all levels of government and serves as the information source providing legislative and governmental information to Chamber members, as well as community feedback for elected officials.

The Chamber provides legislative information to its members in the form of issue alerts, articles in Chamber’s publications, in addition to hosting forums on issues of importance to our community. The Chamber also performs as a clearinghouse for information during each election cycle, identifying business friendly candidates and analyzing the many ballot proposals that impact our membership’s everyday life.

David Vessey, Chair of the Governmental Affairs Division Board,
speaks about member involvement in Legislative Advocacy.

2008 Survey Results

Why is the Chamber important to you?

49.5% said the access to elected officials, community leaders, and decision makers
43.4% said the legislative advocacy piece was the most important
2/3 of the top responses said the GAPP Division was the most important to them.

Please choose the three most important issues to you.

Economic Development (79.7%)
City & County Fiscal Sustainability (43.5%)
Quality Workforce (27.7%)

Please rate how important you feel each of the following are; Legislative Advocacy, Promoting and Defending the American Dream, Business Engagement on Health Care Reform, and Regional efforts to enhance quality of life issues.

The most important was Legislative Advocacy with 32.6% saying it was #10
Small Business/American Dream came in 2nd with 27.1% saying it was #10

What role do you believe the Chamber should have in education?

According to 68.9% the Chamber’s role in Education should be working with our higher education institutions to bring about greater economic development opportunities.
Holding our public institutions accountable for better outcomes came in 2nd with 53.7%.

How effective do you believe the Pikes Peak Rural Transportation Authority has been in providing a strong transportation system for our region?

25% of respondents said PPRTA was moderately effective (a 5) to very poor (1)
46% rated it between moderate (5) and fairly good (7)
17% thought it was very good (9) or great (10)

How would you rate the following transportation issues to your business and in your opinion, to the community?

Developing an East-West route through Colorado Springs(23%)
Funding to maintain current roads and bridges (20.9%)

What taxation is of most concern to you?

People are most concerned about their Personal income tax (67.6%)
People are least concerned about the Business Personal Property Tax (45.7%)

What is the greatest immediate concern for your business?

Economic Growth and Development
Current Economy

Has the credit crunch impacted your company’s ability to obtain financing?

The Credit Crunch has not affected most business (80.3%)

How has the current economic climate impacted your business or organization?

Fuel costs
Slowing consumer spending
Tightened credit availability
Uncertainties, leading to delay of business decisions
21/118 (17.8%) said it hadn’t affected their business or had only very little impact

Please let us know of other community or legislative issues that should be addressed by the Chamber

Being more of a leader in the community
Working on economic development