by Gene Wunderlich

The Southwest California Legislative Council has just released its seventh annual legislator’s voting report card. This report tracks local legislators voting records on issues critical to our local business community at the state and federal level. Founded in 2004, the Southwest California Legislative Council is the regional business advocacy coalition for the Temecula Valley Chamber of Commerce, Murrieta Chamber of Commerce, Lake Elsinore Valley and Wildomar Chamber of Commerce.

SWCLC’s mission is to provide a basis for those chambers, and the more than 2,000 businesses they represent, to act on local, state and federal issues to secure a favorable and profitable business climate for the region.

“Our advocacy group worked closely with our area legislators in 2011 to make sure our voice was represented at the state and federal level of government,” stated Gene Wunderlich, chair of the SWCLC board of Directors. “It is important that each of our chambers work together to hold our legislators accountable on the most important issues impacting our regional business community.

We want to thank our legislators for voting with the Southwest California business community 100% of the time during this past session. Supporting what is best for our local economy is obviously priority number one for each of them.”

The SWCLC lobbied our legislators to support 10 bills during the 2011 session and oppose 20 bills. To reach the ‘Percentage FOR Pro-jobs legislation,” the SWCLC tallied the number of times our legislator’s final vote were in synch with the SWCLC’s position on the bill and divided that total by the number of bills on which each legislator voted. A legislative proposal is not factored into the vote record if a legislator, for whatever reason, did not vote or if the proposal failed before the legislator had an opportunity to vote.

2011 Vote Summary:                        FOR jobs bills           AGAINST jobs bills           Percentage FOR

State Senator Joel Anderson                           14                                0                                         100%

State Senator Bill Emerson                               14                                0                                         100%

Assemblyman Kevin Jeffries                           12                                0                                         100%

Assemblyman Brian Nestande                         14                                0                                         100%

Governor Jerry Brown                                    5                                2                                         71%       

While discussing the voting record and what it means to the local community, 66^th District Assemblyman had this to say. “I take great pride fighting on behalf of the small and medium businesses that are trying to survive in California and put people back to work. I have been a small business in our region for nearly 25 years. Our economic recovery is going to come from the private sector - not new government regulations or programs. But those of us in the legislature that are fighting to protect the private sector are very much in the minority. We could sure use some more like-minded citizens being elected in the future to help level the playing field.”

The SWCLC has just set its legislative agenda for the 2012 session. Each year the group establishes a set of strategic initiatives from which our policy platform is derived. Our strategic initiatives for 2012 include ‘Job Creation and Business Retention; Environmental Reform; and Budget, Taxation and Regulatory Reform.’ Tom Rodgers, District Representative for Sen. Joel Anderson (and Sen. Dennis Hollingsworth previously) had this to say at a recent meeting of the Southwest California Legislative Council. “It’s been a pleasure for me to attend your meetings almost from the time you started. The Legislative Council has grown to be one of the best organized and most effective advocacy organizations in the state. The Senators have always appreciated your support on important bills and it’s great for us to have this portal back into the local business community.”

For a comprehensive listing of the groups 2012 Policy Platform, please visit http://www.southwestca.biz/priorities.htm. SWCLC meets at noon on the 3^rd Monday of each month at 26529 Jefferson Ave, Murrieta. All members of the public and business community are welcome to attend. We are the voice for business in Southwest California – make your voice heard today.