The Chamber’s Executive Board met on Thursday, May 5 at Frost Tower. The Chamber’s 2023 Chair of the Board Katie Harvey, CEO of KGBTexas Communications, welcomed Executive Board members and introduced Cacie Madrid, Vice President of Public Policy, to give an update on the Texas 88th Legislative Session. Cacie began by reminding the Board that our executive priorities for the session centered around economic development incentives, workforce development, infrastructure investments, military affairs, and property tax relief. She also highlighted several wins, including:
- HB 5, which will ensure Texas can compete for large-capital intensive investments, which will bring jobs and long-term revenue to Texas communities. Further, HB 5 will preserve the business climate and foster future growth by developing a new, transparent, and accountable economic development policy.
- HB 8, which is the community college finance reform bill that is particularly beneficial to our region, providing an additional $33 million expected for Alamo Colleges to help with reskilling and upskilling our local workforce.
- SB 2220, which adds authority of certain municipalities and local government corporations to use certain tax revenue for certain qualified projects. This bill will help support critical investments for the Henry B. Gonzalez Convention Center and the Alamodome, supporting economic development in our region as well as tourism and hospitality.
- HB 9, which creates the Texas Broadband Infrastructure Fund and dedicates $5 billion from the economic stabilization fund to support broadband expansion.
Next, Katie thanked the board for leaning in to support and help the effort to defeat Proposition A, which appeared on the May ballot, and led a discussion about the business community’s involvement in future City Charter amendments.
Katie also gave a brief update on the Chamber’s Board of Investors/Annual Meeting, which will be held on Thursday, July 29, 2023 at 4 p.m. at the Witte Museum’s Dawson Family Hall. Julie Ring, Vice President of Image and Communications, briefly ran through the run of show for the meeting and gave a brief overview of the content that would be covered.
The Chamber’s Interim President and CEO Dave Petersen began his President’s report by discussing the Chamber’s upcoming transition to the GrowthZone Customer Relationship Management system. He reported that Chamber has signed on with Capital Access Alliance, a nationwide coalition of groups pushing Congress to change the perimeter rule, to help secure direct flights from San Antonio to Reagan National. He also mentioned that SA to DC 2024 has been tentatively scheduled for February 26 – 29, 2024. Dave called on Joe Kampa, Vice President of Membership, to provide an update on membership growth and Jeff Fair, Vice President of Cybersecurity and Economic Development, to give an update on the ARPA-H Bid.