Randy Zook
The Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/Associated Industries of Arkansas is the leading advocate for Arkansas businesses on both the state and national level.
Our mission is to promote a pro-business, opportunity-economy agenda and contest anti-business legislation, regulations and rules. Now more than ever, business matters to our nation’s future. In the global economy, our competitive capacity must be all it can possibly be and the State Chamber/AIA works every day to make that happen.
For more than 80 years, the Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce has worked to make Arkansas a better place to do business by giving private sector employers a voice in state politics and providing a full range of Arkansas-specific products and services. The Arkansas State Chamber’s active Governmental Affairs staff works in tandem with business leaders throughout the state to promote policies providing greater certainty for employers and greater opportunity for employees. In addition to representing employers to legislators and regulatory agencies, we:
- Manage a targeted political action network for both the Arkansas State Chamber and the Associated Industries of Arkansas. Our non-partisan, pro-business State Chamber and AIA Political Action Committees help elect pro-business legislators.
- Take a leadership role on statewide initiative campaigns to fight for a healthier economy.
- Go to court, when needed, on behalf of Arkansas employers and the state’s economy.
The State Chamber/AIA is engaged on a whole host of issues that have important implications for the business climate in Arkansas – severance taxes, sales taxes, tax exemptions, unemployment insurance, highway and road construction, water plants, energy policy, workers’ compensation insurance, broadband access, tort reform, education/workforce development and environmental regulations just to name a few.
Our national and federal efforts continue to involve issues of concern to Arkansas’ business community including fighting back against overreaching efforts by multiple federal agencies. Those have included State Chamber/AIA initiatives to push back against proposed federal agency efforts to increase critical habitat for two freshwater mussels, tighten ozone standards, limit affordable sources of energy, limit access to waterways and limit the freedom of business and workers to debate unionization activities.
Congress and President Obama’s administration continue to fall short in their efforts to reach agreement on important issues that could result in faster growth in our economy. Immigration reform, corporate tax reform, sensible energy policy and expanded free trade, to name a few, all offer great opportunities to create more certainty and confidence that would help stimulate business formation and expansion and the jobs that would come from growth.
The general election on Nov. 8 will be an important one in Arkansas as well as nationally. Voter turnout will likely be high due to the elections for president of the United States, U.S. senator, four congressional seats, two members of the Arkansas Supreme Court including a new Chief Justice, four seats on the Court of Appeals, all 100 members of the Arkansas House of Representatives and 17 state senators. It is vitally important for the business community and their employees to engage and participate in these important state races, both individually and collectively.
Our work to support Arkansas’ businesses never stops. We are now focused on supporting and advocating for Issue 3, a proposed constitutional amendment, also on the Nov. 8 general election ballot, which encourages job creation, job expansion and economic development. We also continue our participation in some of the state task forces that have been established.
The Arkansas State Chamber will soon resume our initiative of taking our message on the road in partnership with our local chambers of commerce and economic development organizations with our State Chamber door-to-door initiative. Through the voice of our membership, our issues committees will begin meeting late summer and early fall to establish our legislative priorities for the next legislative session.
Business matters and there is more work to be done. We appreciate the support of our many member businesses throughout Arkansas and we encourage those businesses and organizations that are not currently members of the State Chamber or AIA to join our ranks. We will always lead the effort to secure Arkansas’ future through a strong, opportunity-rich economy.
Randy Zook
President & CEO
Arkansas State Chamber of Commerce/AIA
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