The Tennessee Business Roundtable today announced its 2019 State Policy Priorities, reflecting Roundtable members’ top concerns in the areas of Education & Workforce Development, Health, and Competitiveness & Business Climate.
“When we asked dozens of our state’s executive business leaders about their top policy concerns, they identified fourteen priorities for action by our Roundtable,” said TBR President Pat Sheehy. “TBR is making these ‘big rocks’ our priorities in working with the incoming Lee Administration and the Tennessee General Assembly to create positive policy change supporting businesses, people and economic growth across our state’s three Grand Divisions.”
Here are the Roundtable’s top policy concerns for this year—click the links to view details about each priority:
Fix Tennessee’s K-12 academic testing—and keep it closely aligned to our state’s academic standards.
Keep Tennessee’s hard-won, rigorous K-12 academic standards strong—and keep improving them.
Expand the availability of early childhood education programs for Tennessee’s youngest future workers.
Accelerate alignment between the K-12 and post-secondary curricula that supply the high-skill, living-wage occupations in greatest demand in Tennessee’s economy.
Better-coordinate Tennessee state government’s workforce-development efforts, make them more transparent to those served, and open them up to input from and involvement by our state’s job-creators.
Fight the chronic health conditions which prevent too many Tennesseans from participating in and contributing fully to our state’s workforce, and whose costs hurt our economy, through policies that:
Empower employers to promote employee health through HSA and health insurance incentives.
Promote government-private sector partnerships to address chronic health conditions.
Enhance availability of low- or no-cost generic RXs to control chronic health conditions.
Increase the number of primary care providers in TN via better payment & opportunities.
Reduce regulatory barriers to workplace-based medical facilities.
Further expand access to affordable health coverage for working-age Tennesseans.
Make state projects to relieve commercial and commuter highway congestion a top priority for planning, ROW acquisition, engineering, and completion, second only to critical safety repairs.
Make Tennessee’s franchise & excise tax rates more competitive with those of other Southeast states.
Preserve Tennessee employers’ rights to control firearms and other risks on their property.
Protect and improve Tennessee’s Worker’s Compensation and Unemployment Insurance programs.
Keep Tennessee welcome to all persons who want to contribute to our workforce and economy.
Keep Tennessee’s regulatory “playing field” fair for alternative & advanced energy development.
Fight the opioid abuse threatening Tennessee’s workforce productivity and business reputation.