The Public Policy Committee of the Henderson-Henderson County Chamber of Commerce has identified the following initiatives as the chamber's legislative priorities for 2012:

Federal Initiatives

1. The chamber strongly encourages Congress, the U.S. Department of Transportation and the Federal Highway Administration to designate Interstate 69 as a Project of National and Regional Significance in any version of a new federal highway reauthorization bill.

This designation will make I-69 eligible for programmatic funding through the FHA and will help speed the completion of what we believe is one of the most important long-term infrastructure projects in the nation.

2. We encourage Congress to continue to explore methods to curtail the Environmental Protection Agency's increasing proclivity to pass ever more restrictive standards concerning coal and energy production without regard to state permitting regulations.

We ask that the Senate pass the Clean Water Cooperative Federalism Act of 2011, which has already passed the House.

State Initiatives

1. The Chamber urges the Kentucky Energy and Environment Cabinet to aggressively assert its authority as the primary administrator of delegated environmental programs. We encourage the cabinet to strongly protest any federal Environmental Protection Agency demands that are inconsistent with past state regulatory actions or determinations.

We encourage the cabinet to ensure that existing environmental laws and regulations are applied and enforced in a consistent, nondiscriminatory manner at both public and private facilities.

2. To help achieve sustainable, efficient state government, we support the Kentucky Chamber's call for the General Assembly to adopt responsible principles to limit spending and borrowing costs, to continue public employee benefit reforms and to eliminate structural deficits. We also encourage reforms and simplifications to Kentucky's tax code that will promote business growth and development.

3. To make progress against Kentucky's status as one of the nation's least healthy states, we support legislation that would provide tax and other incentives for businesses that implement wellness programs for employees.

4. The chamber urges heavy industrial power users and electric utilities throughout the state to work in close partnership with the General Assembly, the Beshear administration and the Public Service Commission to develop mutually beneficial strategies that will keep Kentucky manufacturing companies competitive in the global marketplace.

5. We strongly encourage the General Assembly to continue its support for the completion of Kentucky's portion of Interstate 69.

6. We encourage the General Assembly to investigate nontraditional methods and new standards to educate and train an appropriate workforce for the 21st Century. We support more aggressive standards for evaluating the performance of students and schools. We support investigating and implementing alternative ways for students who do not want to attend school to complete their education.

7. We encourage the legislature to seek the most cost-effective means by which prisoners can be safely confined.

We support the amendment of state justice department laws and regulations to permit qualified county jails to compete with private institutions to house convicted state prisoners. We urge the nonrenewal of the state's current contract with CCA.

Local Initiatives

1. We encourage local governments to implement streamlined processes necessary for creating or expanding businesses and developing real property in our community.

To achieve this goal, we urge an in-depth study of the effectiveness of combining the city and county codes enforcement departments into one entity under the oversight of the City-County Planning Commission.

We also support efforts to house necessary permitting and licensing offices in a central location to simplify the methods by which new or expanding businesses can obtain necessary governmental documentation.

2. We commend the Henderson City Commission for encouraging local development through various incentives and support the city's effort to examine ways to expand or enhance those incentives.

3. We encourage the city commission to study the benefits of amending open container laws to allow the use and sale of alcohol during permitted events and festivals which utilize public property.