Advocacy
For 10 years, Georgia has been the number one state for doing business. The Cobb Chamber prides itself as a partner dedicated to bringing the community and its leaders together, creating jobs, strengthening our economy, and providing a thriving community for its citizens. We are one of the most influential business advocacy organizations in the state and one of the top chambers in the nation. We are a catalyst for innovative solutions, stimulating businesses of all sizes and creating an environment where our community prospers.
Dedicated to robust advocacy, the Cobb Chamber’s 2024 State Legislative Agenda represents our commitment to advance a vibrant and prosperous economy by enhancing the business climate and quality of life for Cobb County, the region, and the state. Our agenda addresses critical concerns from our 2,700-member organizations, most recognized as small businesses, representing more than 18,000 business leaders across the county. Your support on these issues is critical to our success and, we thank you for your continued service to the great state of Georgia.
Economic Development and the recruitment/retention of quality jobs is a significant focus of the Cobb Chamber. We also focus on workforce development, existing industry expansion, entrepreneurial support, research, and development tax credits, and cultivating a business-friendly environment for employers and their employees. We support legislation that continues to drive dollars to our tourism industry and oppose measures that are discriminatory in nature. We support the continuation of tax credits that enhance our business climate.
We encourage state-level efforts to ensure we are in the most competitive position possible for future growth through sound, inclusive, pro-business, job-creating legislation. The Cobb Chamber supports common-sense public policies that remove regulatory barriers to growth and support tax incentives and economic development policies for industries that produce quality jobs. At the same time, we oppose policies or legislative measures that negatively impact our business climate. We support current state law that allows for transparency and accountability of third-party online marketplaces to protect consumers and our local businesses.
To keep our current business environment competitive and to attract new companies to Cobb, we support the call for lawsuit reform. In its most recent Lawsuit Climate Survey, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Institute for Legal Reform (ILR) ranked Georgia 41st out of the 50 states. Georgia ranks 7th highest in tort costs per household and 9th highest in tort costs as a share of GDP.
The movement of citizens is a defining issue for Cobb and the Atlanta region. At the Cobb Chamber, we believe infrastructure, transportation, and mobility investments are critical to the long-term stability and the future success of our county, region, and state. We also view it as a partnership, and our local, state, and federal governments are making significant investments to provide matching funds to move critical projects forward.
We support infrastructure of the future. This includes the modernization of telecommunications such as the expansion of broadband, shared autonomous mobility on defined networks, energy infrastructure, the use of smart technology along our corridors, and continued efforts to expand the state’s freight and logistics industry. We support the efforts of the state to provide an electric vehicle (EV) charging stations network that is convenient, reliable, affordable, and equitable for all users.
We support a state budget increase for the Georgia Transportation Infrastructure Bank (GTIB) which helps fund critical transportation infrastructure projects not only in Cobb County but across the state of Georgia.
The Cobb Chamber supports the state’s Major Mobility Investment Program (MMIP), the 10-year, $10B effort to build Managed Lanes along I-75/I-285/400/I-85 as one of the ways to address the region’s mobility needs and encourage the incorporation of transit elements such as Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) as part of these projects.
To ensure a qualified workforce for our region, necessary investments in our educational infrastructure must continue. We support a fully funded enrollment-based formula and successful education system that offers pre-K to doctorates which are vital economic drivers for successful future of existing business, expansion of and new business success.
In Cobb County, our two public K-12 systems are regarded highly by families and national experts, and indeed, both the Cobb County School District and the Marietta City School System consistently have higher graduation rates and scores on key subject areas than most of our peers across the state. We support bond projects and state investments in higher education that enhance the mission of Chattahoochee Technical College, Kennesaw State University, and Life University.
Upskilling and workforce development are significant factors in corporate expansions and relocations, and we are staunch advocates for college and career academies in both school systems. We support licensure reform to meet our workforce needs by placing skilled individuals in industry positions.
Healthcare is a growth industry in the U.S. and Cobb with tremendous resources with providers, bioscience, and pharmaceutical research and development. Our SelectCobb economic development strategy has identified both bioscience and healthcare services as growth opportunities for the county.
We support gains made in healthcare coverage through the pandemic that enhance health equity, and support liability protections for providers. We support the continuation of tax exemption for not-for-profit community hospitals and improved reimbursement levels for all Medicaid providers, including public health and primary care physicians seeing the patients most in need. In addition, we support the state’s current Certificate-of-Need (CON) process. We support measures aimed at strengthening the workforce development pipeline for the health care industry to alleviate the severe shortage of physicians, nurses, and health care workers across the state.
As an integral part of our national security, readiness, and responsiveness, Dobbins Air Reserve Base is home to the 94th Airlift Wing, the 22nd Air Force Headquarters, the Georgia National Guard Headquarters, Navy Reserve Center Atlanta, units of the Army Reserve, Marine Reserve, and Civil Air Patrol. It hosts many civilian partners, including Lockheed Martin and the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI). Dobbins has more than 5,000 assigned military members, including all branches of the military, and is the servicing installation for more than 400,000 eligible beneficiaries in the greater Atlanta region, including retirees from all branches of service.
The Chamber encourages the Governor, state leaders, and the Georgia Joint Defense Commission to continue providing necessary support for all Georgia bases and communities and taking steps now to prepare for any potential threats to all our bases and place the state in a position to be a net gainer of missions. We support the continued expansion of license reciprocity for our service members and their spouses. We also support state incentives that enhance and expand our aerospace industry.
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