Three weeks from today, 100 business and community leaders will come together for the Chamber’s annual ACCESS Sacramento trip, advocating for legislation and policies that will rebuild the California economy, create new jobs and deliver essential services for the people of California.

Decisions made this legislative session will determine the rate of business growth, the number [...]

A month ago, more than 150 business and civic leaders descended on our nation’s capital to make the case for policies, initiatives and funding priorities to improve our local and national economy. Though we advocated on many fronts, one of our top priorities was Comprehensive Immigration Reform (CIR). We painted a picture of how CIR [...]

It is not hyperbole to say that the upcoming vote by the members of the L.A. City Council on the new long-rangeplan to modernize the Los Angeles International Airport (LAX) is the most important vote they will cast during their term in office. Their vote will determine whether our gateway to the world moves forward with [...]

When I arrived in Los Angeles in 2006, Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa and the L.A. City Council were facing a $200 million budget deficit even though the economy was booming and city tax revenue was growing by 5 percent annually. The Council balanced the budget with cuts in expenditures, but in 2007, the same story unfolded [...]

The United States is a nation of immigrants. For 500 years, we have experienced a constant flow of people from around the globe. My family came from Germany in 1860 and was part of the westward migration of hardworking families who settled the plains of Nebraska and converted what early explorers called “the great American [...]

This Wednesday, the Ad-Hoc Committee on Business Tax Reform will meet for the first time to begin the formal process of phasing in reform of the gross receipts tax once and for all. This committee, chaired by L.A. City Councilmember Paul Krekorian and Vice-Chair Eric Garcetti, will build on the work done by the Business [...]

After almost a half-decade of decline in funding for K-12 and Higher Education in California, Gov. Jerry Brown’s new budget proposal includes a boost in funding that will have an impact on every student who is attending school in the Golden State. This increased investment in education, coupled with a state budget proposal that is [...]

The Port settlement last week was not the only recent agreement that cheered Angelenos. The previous week the Los Angeles Unified School District (LAUSD) and United Teachers of Los Angeles (UTLA) reached a landmark agreement to improve the process of evaluating and supporting teachers by including student test scores in the process. The Los Angeles [...]

I am often asked what the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce means when we say that the City of Los Angeles needs to be more business friendly. On the City Council’s agenda today is a blatant example of why Los Angeles has the reputation of being unfriendly to business. The issue is the Walmart [...]

The Los Angeles City Council directed Chief Administrative Officer Miguel Santana to begin work on a new pension tier for new civilian hires. We applaud this action and urge the City Council to create a new tier that will greatly reduce the pension obligations of the City in future years. At the same meeting, the [...]