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Back in May I introduced you to the Southwest California Legislative Council, the regional business advocacy coalition of the Temecula Valley, Murrieta, and Lake Elsinore Chambers of Commerce. The Council’s mission is to provide the basis for the three chambers to act on local, state, and federal issues to secure a favorable and profitable business climate for the region.

“The Southwest California Legislative Council is one of a handful of Chamber organizations across the state taking a leadership role in legislative advocacy on behalf of its members and one of the first in the nation to form a regional alliance,” according to California Chamber Senior VP Dave Kilby at a recent planning session held by the group. “The focus of this group is clearly on benefiting their business members in a pro-active and positive way.”

The Council recently released its year-end legislative vote record at a “Connections Luncheon” coordinated by the Lake Elsinore Valley Chamber. The event featured a panel with Senator Jim Battin and Assembly Members Ray Haynes, John Benoit, and Russ Bogh that fielded local business owners’ questions for nearly two hours.

The SWCLC believes it is extremely important to communicate its positions on bills that might impact the Southwest California Business Community. This vote record reflects a year of hard work by members and is a tool they will use each year to hold elected officials accountable to their business community.

The Council’s official positions on the 16 bills tracked this year and a full report of the first year’s agenda is available at their website, and I heartily encourage you to visit frequently. The short summary is that Senator Hollingsworth and Assembly Members Haynes and Benoit voted with the Council to support Pro-jobs bills 100% of the time. Senator Battin differed with us on one bill involving unsolicited faxing, but he remained pro-business 93% of the time. The Governor also voted with SWCLC 91% of the time, vetoing 11 of the 12 measures opposed by the group.

“Since all of these bills supported or opposed by SWCLC are beneficial to our local business community, we feel this is quite a good start,” says Joan Sparkman, 2006 Chair of the SWCLC. “Obviously it’s only a small step toward improving the business climate statewide, but it’s the first of many.”

One of the benefits rolled out to over 2,400 members this year was the E-Alert. The purpose of the E-Alert is to give each business owner a direct voice to their legislator on issues that are critical to their business. Most legislators will tell you they rarely hear from constituents on bills they are voting on. If they get a couple calls and a few e-mails that constitutes a big response. The E-Alert makes it possible for a legislator to receive hundreds of letters, faxes, and e-mails from you on a bill as they go to vote.

To generate grassroots support or opposition to a bill, the Legislative Council issues members an email E-Alert updating you on the issue and talking points if you want to call your representative. If you aren’t up for a phone call, simply hit the response button and a letter, fax, or email will be generated on your behalf and directed to your appropriate legislator, commissioner, or councilor. It’s a powerful tool and it’s an opportunity to have your voice heard that’s simply not available to most business owners across the state unfortunately.

If more of our legislators had either worked for a living prior to their tenure in the legislature, or if they were more directly responsible and answerable to their business constituency, maybe the business climate would not have deteriorated to the point it has in our Golden State. The E-Alert is your way of making your voice heard upfront on the issues you care about; the year-end SWCLC vote record is your way of making sure your voice really counted.

If you haven’t visited the Southwest California Legislative Council website yet, take a positive step for your business in 2006. Sign up to be counted via E-Alert at www.SouthwestCaliforniaAdvocacy.biz and start taking your business decisions back out of the hands of the politicians.

Gene Wunderlich is the 2005 Chairman of the Southwest California Legislative Council.

This article appeared in the January 5, 2006 Valley Business Journal.

For more log on to: www.valleybusinessjournal.com

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