Below is the government affairs update from Roberta Parks, President of the Peoria Area Chamber of Commerce, dated 7/3/12.

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act

The dust has somewhat began to settle since the Supreme Court handed down its 5-4 decision, where Chief Justice Roberts was the surprising swing vote. The Court upheld the individual mandate portion of the bill, which requires all Americans who can afford it to purchase health insurance by 2014, under the taxing power of Congress. If individuals do not purchase health insurance they will be forced to pay a penalty with their tax returns. The penalty will either be a flat fee OR a percentage of an individual’s annual income, whichever is greater. As for the expansion of Medicaid, the Court ruled that the Federal government could NOT take away existing Medicaid funding from a state should that state not choose to expand coverage; only the new funds for the expansion would not be available. The Court said that this would amount to coercion on the part of the Federal government because Medicaid funding makes up such a substantial portion of state budgets.

So what has been the impact so far and, maybe more importantly, what will be the long term impact? Well, hospital stocks rose while insurance stocks dropped, which was something that was predicted by many if the healthcare law would be upheld. As far as the reforms that Illinois made to Medicaid are concerned, they should be ok. According to the State Senate the reforms were made under the assumption that the law would stand. The next step for the states is to establish health care exchanges. As more information develops on how this historic law will affect business, we will be sure to get it out to you.

Sources: U.S. Chamber of Commerce, Champaign County Chamber of Commerce

Transportation Reauthorization

It seemed like it wasn’t going to happen but on June 29th the Congress finally passed a 2 year reauthorization of funding for transportation in our country. This bill includes highways, bridges, transit, rail and more. For the highway program, the total funding amount is somewhat disappointing as it is not as high as the Transportation for Illinois Coalition (the Chamber is a member of this statewide group) had hoped. Having said that, the Illinois delegation, with much assistance from Senator Durbin, pulled off what can only be considered miraculous. The percentage amounts of funding that the State of Illinois will receive in FY 13 and 14 has increased from previous years. So in a world of declining funding, our state will be receiving proportionally more!

There are many program changes in this bill and a consolidation of several but we feel that the critical components are present. The bill also includes streamlining of the process for project delivery (simplification basically), improves the movement of freight through targeted investment (likely very good for Illinois) and more. It appears that downstate transit has come through this bill okay. There is a slight increase in the funding for transit and we believe that Illinois will benefit from that also.

Thanks to Congressmen Schock, Congressmen Schilling, and Senator Durbin for voting to pass the reauthorization and to all of you who contacted our members of Congress to support this important effort for our state and region.

I’d also like to point out the advantage we have in being a member of the Transportation for Illinois Coalition. This state wide organization has been instrumental in getting a capital program passed and funded at the State level and has worked this federal issue very hard for the past two years. These types of partnerships strengthen what we can do locally and magnify our voice significantly. We have helped TFIC by arranging media coverage for them locally, setting up and attending meetings with both members of Congress and the General Assembly in our area and by serving on the TFIC committees. I co-chair the Federal Issues committee and Matt Zick from Crawford Murphy and Tilly and a member of our transportation committee sits on the State Issues committee.

Consolidation Report from PASS Forward

In last Fridays Peoria Journal Star, there was an article about a recent PASS Forward report that says two elected positions in the county government could be absorbed and consolidated into a reconfigured county bureaucracy. The two positions, auditor and recorder of deeds, if consolidated could save the county between $800,000 and $1.6 million. The PASS Forward group is recommending that the citizens be allowed to vote on the issue. For the issue to be put up for referendum, the County Board would need to vote to put it on the ballot.

Greater Peoria Named Top 100 Leading US Locations

Greater Peoria ranks high on Area Development’s annual “Leading Locations” list. The list ranks 365 MSA’s to identify places that are thriving in the midst of adversity and prospering while others are struggling. The report points out that the MSA’s studied have fewer people working now than 5 years ago, however prosperity is evident and these leading locations have been able to rebound from the recession faster than others.

Peoria ranked #20 on the list among Midwestern MSA’s (regardless of size), #34 among midsized MSA’s and #78 among all US 365 MSA’s studied. In general, Midwestern locations did better than coastal locations. The report points to several potential reasons for that success including the “comeback” of U.S. manufacturing, an increase in global export activities and growth of the technology sector. Greater Peoria has experienced each of these.

The methodology behind the list uses 23 indicators including workforce growth, migration rates, unemployment levels, economic strength, job growth, GDP, wage and salary growth and more. Learn more about this list and the methodology at http://www.areadevelopment.com/Leading-Locations/Summer2012/Introduction-and-Top-100-MSAs-1445556.shtml.

Area Development magazine is considered the leading executive magazine covering corporate site selection and relocation. Area Development is published bi-monthly and has more than 45,000 executive subscribers.

And of course, have a safe and happy Fourth of July tomorrow!

If you would like to receive these updates by email, please email Roberta at rparks@chamber.h-p.org and tell her that you would like to be placed on the government affairs email list. For past government affairs updates, click here.