Our team looks forward to working with the N.C. General Assembly to maintain and advance a competitive business climate that grows private-sector jobs as outlined in the NC Chamber’s 2026 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.
Learn more about NC Chamber Membership
Pillar 1: Education and Talent Supply
- Support sustainable early childhood education policy reforms and innovations that address the growing workforce challenges of 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 strategies that strengthen the pipeline of military talent entering the North Carolina job market.
Pillar 2: Competitive Business Climate
- Oppose efforts that would increase health insurance costs through mandates and other unnecessary market intervention.
- 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. Preserve and protect reforms from judicial creep.
- Eliminate the regressive state franchise tax that penalizes North Carolina businesses and harms economic development.
- 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.
- Adopt a model-like version of a statute for reporting adjustments to federal taxable income and federal partnership audit adjustments.
- Monitor data privacy and artificial intelligence regulatory proposals in North Carolina and across the nation. Oppose private rights of action.
- Protect the integrity and solvency of the state’s unemployment insurance (UI) system.
- Oppose legislation enacting burdensome mandates on employers with existing or new call centers in North Carolina.
- Advance policies that protect business operations from regulatory creep and initiatives that threaten public health and government accountability.
- Support permitting efficiency reforms that foster economic growth and accelerate job creation in North Carolina.
- Establish and maintain relationships with economic development organizations and leaders to assist with legislative priorities in alignment with those of the NC Chamber that impact the well-being of North Carolina.
- Advance agriculture policy priorities and legislation that protects and promotes agribusiness in North Carolina.
- Protect North Carolina’s status as a Right-to-Work state.
- Encourage conformity with the federal government related to Opportunity Zones 2.0 passed in the One Big Beautiful Bill (H.R.1) which will allow for a more competitive North Carolina.
Pillar 3: Infrastructure and Growth Leadership
- Advocate for a modernized transportation funding structure, including increasing overall revenue, to keep residents and visitors safe, improve quality of life, and meet the demands of a growing state in an increasingly competitive business environment.
- Support creation of a State Infrastructure Bank and other innovative financing solutions to leverage private money for the expansion of infrastructure in North Carolina. 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 energy production methods.
- Protect North Carolina’s energy regulatory structure, which is necessary to support the state’s leadership in advancing nuclear power generation.
- 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 regulatory barriers and address challenges to housing availability to improve opportunities for the state’s workforce.
- Support efforts to encourage local governments to help solve the housing challenge in North Carolina through local zoning, permitting, and regulatory modernization efforts to improve housing availability and affordability.
- Support efforts to update and expand North Carolina’s water infrastructure for long-term resilience and sustainability, including regionalization of water systems, interbasin transfer process reforms, and water governance.
- Champion policies to grow and expand the defense manufacturing and technology industry in North Carolina.
NC Chamber Legal Reform Agenda
The NC Chamber will work to advance tort and civil liability reforms that establish 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 prohibit third party litigation investment.
- 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 plaintiff 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 in order 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.
- Support a clarification to Rule 702 regarding expert testimony that would harmonize North Carolina and federal statutes.