As the NCCA members seeks to redefine its economic efforts to compete effectively for the future, we must continue to improve our infrastructure, particularly in the areas of energy, water, transportation, and technology. These systems provide the foundation for accelerated business growth, increased capital, job creation, investment, and an improved quality of life. Worthy improvements require smart investment, sound management, and a creative partnership between the public and private sectors. As government budgets continue to shrink, spending priorities will become more difficult to identify. The business community must emphasize the importance of continued infrastructure investment. This emphasis should be accomplished through active participation and input from the business community to ensure rational policy-making decisions. The business community must also remain vigilant to ensure that new legislation and regulations do not hinder infrastructure development and the economic development and job creation that it brings.

TRANSPORTATION

The NCCA Supports:

• Advocating for expanded regional transportation facilities, projects and funding.
• Promoting fairness and competition for transportation infrastructure funding opportunities based on largest demonstrated need and impact. While this type of criteria is needed for all kinds of projects, it is especially important in evaluating goods movement projects due to the extraordinary impact and stress that international trade places on local transportation systems.
• Engaging the NCCA membership and leadership in policy discussions with local, state and federal representatives as it pertains to options for public/private partnerships and alternate funding for infrastructure improvements.
• Ensuring appropriate regional representation in Vehicle Miles Traveled pilot programs.
• Facilitating regional support for increased funding for grade separations and additional projects that mitigate the impact of goods movement, such as securing state and federal funds and ensuring that goods movement investment is included in a new transportation reauthorization bill.
• Legislation, tax credits and incentives that promote more efficient goods movement on highways and rail lines in and out of the ports of Eureka and surrounding areas.
• Create business-friendly port policies that restore port trade volumes to previous levels and incentivize economic growth and job creation.
• Utilizing local sources of aggregate and construction materials in order to make projects more cost-effective and sustainable.
• Expanded use of tolling as an additional source of transportation funds.
• Identification and development of alternate sources of funding for transportation projects.
• Advocating for the implementation and funding of a national freight policy.

WATER

The NCCA Supports:

• Measures that increase water supply and storage facilities within the region and allow for economically feasible water resource management.
• Modernizing the Endangered Species Act to allow the development of water infrastructure, water supply conveyance and storage, and water quality projects while protecting the ecosystem.
• Measures to educate and encourage businesses on reducing usage and increasing efficiency and/or effectiveness of water conservation efforts, including the use of recycled water.
• Measures that mitigate adverse impacts to water quality and supply.
• Inclusion of metrics to equitably account for regional diversity within statewide policies, such as conservation mandates. Examples of such metrics include, but are not limited to: climate, growth, weather normalization, population density and the development of local drought-proof supplies.
• Policy-making in a transparent, inclusive manner that clearly distinguishes between emergency response measures/processes and long-term sustainable policy development.

ENERGY

The NCCA Supports:

• State and federal regulations that will preserve the ratemaking authority of publicly owned utilities.
• Measures that promote additional transmission capacity and greater participation in the statewide grid improvement system.
• Support local control by allowing municipalities flexibility to proactively implement programs and policies that best suit the community.
• Development and implementation of new technologies and infrastructure that allow public utilities to advance energy efficiency, sustainable energy projects and alternative fuels programs.
• Implementation of AB 32 in a fair and equitable manner across all agencies and utility providers.

UTILITY AND COMMUNICATIONS

The NCCA Supports:

• Legislation and regulations that will encourage innovative utility and telecommunications infrastructure.