Executive Director of Government Affairs for the Quad Cities Chamber of Commerce Ryan Sempf says the survey helps the chamber craft policy goals for the years to come.
"And we use it really to help us understand the issues that are impacting the business community and what we need...and helps us understand what we need to do to help solve those issues," Sempf said in a phone interview with WVIK on Sept. 5th.
Some of the questions local businesses will encounter include the impact of the tax codes on their businesses, the current workforce challenges they face, the quality of their location and the effects of government regulation.
"So last year we put out a legislative agenda. It's available on the Chamber's website right now," Sempf said. "And we actually pulled out statistics from our survey in that agenda to help demonstrate why some of those issues are important. Beyond that, we use the survey to help inform staff in our Business Advocacy Council, which is a group of volunteer business leaders that help us both craft and then implement our legislative agenda for the year ahead. So it's one of those really important inputs into that policy-making process from the chamberS' perspective."
Sempf says people should still respond even if they think they're not policy experts, as they want to hear about the wide range of issues Quad City businesses are facing.
"...[W]e would love to know that to help make sure that we can represent you effectively in Des Moines, Springfield, Washington, D.C., and city halls around the Quad Cities," Sempf said.
Participants can access the survey on the Quad Cities Chamber website. The deadline to participate is Friday, Sept. 20th, at 5 p.m.
