At the Chamber’s recent Legislative Affairs Committee meeting, the program was devoted to the impact that the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (the ACA) is having, and will have, on small businesses. Check out this summary that will hopefully dispel some myths and help you navigate the ACA:

Under The ACA, there as an “Employer Mandate” that requires large employers to provide insurance to their employees. However, the act has an exemption for employers of less than 50 full-time employees, such that most small businesses will not be required to provide health insurance for their employees.

Our recent program also discussed three other issues of importance to small business:

1. Right now, small employers (those employing less than 25 employees) qualify for tax credits if they provide insurance coverage for their employees. This credit can amount to 35% of the premiums paid by the employer.
2. Beginning in 2014, there will be a health insurance exchange for small business owners to shop for group health insurance. This exchange is an online marketplace which will allow small business owners to compare price and benefits of group insurance plans offered by insurers in Texas. The ACA provides for “minimum essential benefits” to be included in each health plan offered on the exchange. Further, there are 4 “tiers” of plans (named bronze, silver, gold and platinum), the premium cost of each tier being based on the actuarial cost of coverage for that tier.
3. Insurers are required to spend at least 80% of your premium dollar on medical care (known as the Medical Loss Ratio or MLR). This requirement means better value for the premium paid by small business.

The United States spends more money on healthcare than most countries that have a Western-style healthcare system but it ranks very poorly in health outcomes. The ACA attempts to rectify this situation by providing insurance coverage to almost 27 million uninsured. The Act is very complicated but there are provisions that do not affect small business owners and there are some that can be beneficial to small business owners. The Oak Cliff Chamber will continue to follow this important issue.

The Dallas Examiner recently featured Oak Cliff Chamber President, Bob Stimson, in an a cover-page article in their January 31st issue talking about the Chamber and some of the initiatives it is currently involved in...

Oak Cliff Chamber: Making a difference in the community

Given the scale of the Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce's ambitions, perhaps it is fitting that its area of operation is actually larger than what is traditionally considered "Oak Cliff," encompassing a full one-third of the city of Dallas, according to OCCC President Bob Stimson.

The organization's stated mission is to advocate for businesses in the Oak Cliff area, and to help foster the sort of economic development that will help those businesses thrive. Member businesses receive benefits including networking opportunities, small business counseling, discounts with certain vendors, referrals, marketing assistance, advertising, seminars and workshops.

But Stimson considers the organization's aggressive advocacy posture to be crucial to its identity, and has no shortage of issues pertaining to development in Southern Dallas to offer up as examples. One such issue is the pressing need for infrastructure development in the area surrounding the University of North Texas at Dallas, right in OCCC's backyard.

"The development of the area around UNT-Dallas is huge for us," Stimson said. "We're committed to making sure that the city does what it said it was going to do with that particular deal." Stimson insists that business opportunities abound in the UNTD area if the necessary infrastructure - roads and sewer lines - could be built in an expedient fashion.

Read the full article on the Dallas Examiner's website>>

Article shared from the Dallas Morning News Oak Cliff Blog

Tom Benning reports the Regional Transportation Council this afternoon approved almost $31 million for the Oak Cliff streetcar project.

The move was expected and will provide dollars to extend the system to near the Bishop Arts area and the Dallas Convention Center. The latest plan will also surely improve prospects for the service and Bishop Arts, as it will directly link tourists and conventioneers with the district’s restaurants, bars and shops.

Latest word from Keith Manoy, the city’s chief transportation planner: Phase one of the project, a 1.5-mile line linking Union Station downtown and Methodist Dallas Medical Center via the Houston Street bridge, will get started in late February or early March.

The work will close the Houston bridge at least until the first phase is complete. The federal government, which is providing $26 million in stimulus dollars to the project, has set an October 2014 deadline. The extension work would continue thereafter with the same construction contractor.

While the Houston span is closed, the Jefferson Street bridge will carry traffic to and from Oak Cliff over the Raging Trinity. Look for more details, maps, etc. to come. In the meantime, soak up the century-old Houston bridge sans streetcar while you can.

Manoy talked about the project at a meeting this week of the Oak Cliff Chamber’s Economic Development Committee. As reported earlier, he said uncertainties about the extension to Bishop Arts remain, such as the service schedule and track placement along the added route between Beckley at Colorado and Zang at Davis.

He said the city will extend the line as far as possible into north Oak Cliff, but doubts there is enough money available to connect with Jefferson Boulevard for now.

He said discussions are focusing on having the streetcars run south on Zang past Davis to perhaps near Seventh, where they would be redirected back north on Zang to Beckley and on to Coloardo.

Current thinking has the system running with traffic in both directions from roughly Zang at Oakenwald to Zang at Davis, he said. Some of the new money ($8 million) will pay for two additional streetcars, giving the system four. Another $15 million will pay for extending the Oak Cliff route, with the remaining $8 million or so continuing the line to and from the convention center.

Ideally, Manoy said, cars will reach stops every 15 minutes and extended-hour service will be provided to Bishop Arts, at least Thursdays through Saturdays.

“We want to make sure it is as convenient and reliable as possible,” he said.

In time, the line will link with the the city’s downtown circulator system, including the McKinney Avenue Transit Authority’s service through Uptown to the West Village.

Will be interesting to see how the schedules, service and ridership works out — and what impact the new option for getting around will have on the Bishop Arts parking squeeze.

The Oak Cliff Chamber of Commerce believes that healthy and educated residents are the basis for sustainable economic development, not only for businesses in Oak Cliff, but for all businesses in the state of Texas. Thus, our legislative agenda focuses on asking the Texas Legislature, in 2013, to take the following actions in healthcare, housing, education, transportation and water resources, all of which will benefit large and small business.

Low-Income Housing
The Chamber is acutely aware of the need for reform of certain aspects of the Low Income Housing Tax Credit (“LIHTC”) program at state, local, and federal levels of government to protect low-income communities from saturation by deed-restricted LIHTC projects. To that end, the Chamber strongly urges the Legislature to:

• Release the State’s extended deed restrictions on LIHTC projects in Qualified Census Tracts of Region 3 that have been renovated to attract higher-income residents after their federal restriction period (currently 30 years) has expired.
• Remove requirements for State-of-Texas-imposed extended deed restrictions on future LIHTC projects
• Institute permanent spacing requirements that disallow further LIHTC projects in communities in which 10% or more of the existing rental housing units in a three-mile radius are deed-restricted low-income housing.
• Require the Department of Housing and Community Affairs and local governments to limit the Community Revitalization Plan LIHTC preference (“CRP”) to communities that are the focus of organized, forward-looking, and economically viable revitalization efforts of which additional LIHTC projects are a necessary component.
• Impose sunset review on all CRP designations.
• Give higher priority to applications for state LIHTC awards for projects designed to generate diversified rental revenue through mixed-use or mixed-income programs.
• Reform the State’s LIHTC Qualified Allocation Plan (“QAP”) to apply to both the 4% and 9% credit projects.
• Revise the QAP to place local economic development associations, including chambers of commerce, on the same footing with neighborhood organizations when evaluating community input on proposed LIHTC projects.

Budget Transparency/Budget Diversions
In recent years, the Legislature has diverted revenue ostensibly raised for specific purposes to the State’s general fund in an effort to make the State’s budget appear balanced. Meanwhile, the intended uses and recipients of this “dedicated” revenue have been left without promised funds. The Chamber strongly urges the Legislature to release revenue previously diverted from the recipient or use for which the revenue was raised and to develop a transparent budgeting process that accurately reflects the State’s current economic health.

Education and Workforce Development
The Chamber urges the legislature to restore fair and adequate funding for school districts and to support an accountability and assessment system that fairly evaluates school and district performance, including measures to decrease dropout rates in all Texas schools. The Chamber also supports initiatives to provide for a safe school environment and expand and improve the quality of early care and education opportunities including funding to allow school districts to expand Pre-K services.

Health Care
Health care is a vital component of Oak Cliff’s economy both as an essential component of our community’s quality of life and as a primary source of employment. Because a thriving, economically-viable healthcare system is essential to achieving this Chamber’s goals in Oak Cliff—economic development and enhanced quality of life—the Chamber strongly encourages the Legislature to pursue all available means of ensuring Texas’s participation in the federal government’s enhanced Medicaid program. The Chamber further encourages the Legislature to explore options Texas may have for participating in the design of its federally-mandated healthcare exchange. Consistent with the Chamber’s goal of reversing budget diversions, the Chamber urges the Legislature to release revenue from red-light cameras to the trauma centers it was intended to benefit.

Environment
The Chamber supports the efforts of others in North Texas to address the State’s dwindling supply of surface water, and encourages the Legislature to work with local governments to promote reasonable water conservation efforts.

National Mortgage Settlement Funds
The Chamber encourages the Legislature to allocate a significant portion of the approximately $134,000,000.00 in National Mortgage Settlement funds Texas received to housing and/or foreclosure-related activities.

Transportation/Economic Development
The Chamber encourages the Legislature to enable the Texas Department of Transportation to convey unneeded undevelopable parcels of land acquired as part of Right of Way acquisition process to qualified nonprofit groups selected by local government.