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Our team looks forward to working with N.C. General Assembly to maintain and advance a competitive business climate that grows private-sector jobs as outlined in the NC Chamber’s 2024 Jobs Agenda.

Our state’s diverse business community recognizes that, at times, you may address complex, sensitive, and controversial issues, we trust you will do so with balance, respect, and an eye on maintaining North Carolina’s status as a top state to live and work.

Our goal, as the state’s largest and most diverse business organization, will be to never surprise you, maintain high visibility and accessibility when it comes to issues impacting our business climate, and to be direct and communicate our concerns when we believe our status as the leading state for private-sector job creation is at risk.

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Pillar 1: Education and Talent Supply

  • Support appropriate pre-K and child care funding structures, policy reforms, and innovations that address the growing workforce demands from the business community.
  • Support efforts that define, standardize, and incentivize non-degree workforce credentials that align with in-demand jobs and increase student engagement.
  • Advocate for proper assessment efforts, programs, and policies to help cultivate and enrich an emerging talent pipeline.
  • Promote and advocate for high-impact programs that connect students with postsecondary and career opportunities.
  • Work with the North Carolina Community College System to identify policy reforms and initiatives in support of a robust workforce.
  • Champion data-driven, research-based initiatives and solutions that specifically target the evolving challenges within North Carolina’s health care workforce.
  • Modernize and remove barriers to allow justice-involved individuals to return to the workforce.
  • Establish North Carolina as a top state for military friendliness by championing solutions to retain transitioning military and connect them with employment opportunities in North Carolina, improving the talent supply pool and building a more resilient economy.

Pillar 2: Competitive Business Climate

  • Prioritize the protection of North Carolina’s status as a right-to-work state.
  • Support legislation that will meaningfully establish association health plans in our state.
  • Advocate for solutions that increase value-driven health care in North Carolina to improve health outcomes and make costs more predictable and affordable.
  • Oppose legislation that expands the number of health insurance mandates imposed on North Carolina businesses.
  • Advance tort and civil liability reforms that reestablish North Carolina’s position as a top-10 state for legal business climate, including reforms that provide certainty and protect companies from frivolous nuisance lawsuits.*
  • Eliminate the regressive state franchise tax that penalizes North Carolina and harms economic development.
  • Monitor the North Carolina Department of Revenue’s interpretation of our state’s business tax laws.
  • Support an anti-deference statute, seeking to eliminate the automatic deference given to a state agency in the administrative appeals process of an agency decision, providing the petitioner the opportunity for a fair decision.
  • Advocate for a 30-day safe harbor for remote workers before an employer is required to withhold taxes in the state where the remote worker is staying.
  • Oppose unreasonable efforts to regulate job creators’ ability to invest and operate as they see fit.
  • Monitor data privacy and artificial intelligence regulatory proposals in North Carolina and across the nation. We will oppose private rights of action.
  • Defeat legislation that erodes the balanced reforms to North Carolina’s workers’ compensation laws.
  • Fight to maintain balance on the North Carolina Industrial Commission, Board of Review, and other boards and commissions by supporting and/or opposing nominees during the confirmation process in alignment with our guiding principles.
  • Protect the integrity and solvency of our state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system.
  • Oppose legislation enacting burdensome mandates on employers with existing or new call centers in North Carolina.
  • Support regulatory reforms that create consistency in rule adoption across rulemaking bodies and that encourage education over regulation to achieve compliance.
  • Support permitting efficiency reforms that foster economic growth in North Carolina and accelerate job creation.
  • Support the creation of a Manufacturing Caucus at the North Carolina General Assembly.

Pillar 3: Infrastructure and Growth Leadership

  • Remove the statutory cap on public-private partnerships, thereby advocating to increase the limited methods of achieving critical infrastructure projects.
  • Advocate for a modernized transportation funding structure to keep our residents and visitors safe, improve our quality of life, and meet the demands of a growing state in an increasingly competitive business environment.
  • Advocate for additional revenue sources that can stabilize North Carolina’s infrastructure investments.
  • Support enabling the full utilization of Build NC Bonds, allowing projects to proceed without delay or further cost increases.
  • Support efforts to improve and speed up transportation and infrastructure project delivery timelines.
  • Promote a forward-thinking, “all-of-the-above” energy strategy that supports grid modernization and reliability and improves access to natural gas, nuclear, biomass, geothermal, renewables, solar, and wind power.
  • Support legislation expanding availability, regulatory predictability, and access to natural gas and biogas.
  • Support efforts to strengthen broadband infrastructure grants, broaden access to digital devices, improve affordability and adoption, and enhance availability in unserved areas.
  • Work to mitigate barriers and address challenges to housing affordability to create opportunities for a much-needed workforce.

*NC Chamber Legal Reform Agenda

The NC Chamber will work to advance tort and civil liability reforms that reestablish North Carolina’s position as a top-10 state for legal business climate, including reforms that provide certainty and protect companies from frivolous nuisance lawsuits.

  • Support legislation that will reign in third party litigation financing.
  • Monitor legislation that would make consumer legal funding legal in North Carolina, ensuring that any framework embraces transparency and disclosure.
  • Oppose efforts by personal injury attorneys to manipulate juries into awarding inflated noneconomic damages – a practice called jury anchoring, where the plaintiff’s attorney provides the jury with a subjective and arbitrary range or formula to guide the award amount.
  • Support legislation that prohibits the modern restatements of laws to prevent enhanced liability and the advancement of a liability-expanding legal reform agenda.
  • Support legislation that requires conflict of interest due diligence in the administration of cy pres awards after a class action fund’s creation.
  • Oppose any effort to change North Carolina’s decades-long adherence to the contributory negligence standard.
  • Support legislation that prohibits the harmful practice of misleading trial lawyer advertising.