by Stina D’Uva, WOCC President/CEO

The month of May saw the end of the 2023 State of Florida Legislative Session where our representatives and senators made decisions impacting many aspects of the business community.  Typically, the Session lasts 60 days. Conversations about appropriations and new legislation began many months prior to the March Session start date. Legislators began their process of meeting with constituents through public meetings, such as Town Hall Meetings, and in smaller formats in the Fall of 2022.

Our Chamber’s Economic and Governmental Advocacy Committee (EGAC), started our process to learn about issues within West Orange County back in November 2022.  Members were asked to express their concerns, wants, and needs. Upon gathering this data, EGAC began developing our 2023 Legislative Position Paper. In January 2023, EGAC then hosted a luncheon with members of the West Orange legislative delegation to determine and understand their key issues, but also voice those of our business community. The information collected helped with the finalization of our position paper, which was later adopted by the West Orange Chamber’s Board of Directors.

Our endeavors to ensure “Wins” concerning our legislative priorities and appropriations entailed presenting our position paper to key legislators, calls to action, and telephone calls. It is with great satisfaction and pleasure to report our efforts were highly successful. Special thanks to our local legislators who championed our items of interest.  To view our paper’s victories, click here.

In addition to the legislative position paper, EGAC is instrumental in delivering luncheons to our members on important topics.  The first in the series, sponsored by Orlando Health, was the Legislative Luncheon held on May 11th with AdventHealth as the Presenting Sponsor and Event Sponsors, Quantum Fiber and Valencia College. We were honored to have seven legislators as our featured speakers. Our thanks to Senator Dennis Baxley, Florida House Representatives Bruce Antone, Carolina Amesty, Doug Bankson, Anna Eskamani, Rita Harris, and Fred Hawkins for providing an informative and spirited conversation, and insights to the legislative process.

As we continue looking at how to best serve our Chamber members and the community of West Orange County, we look forward to the next legislative session scheduled to begin in January 2024.

Our second luncheon in the Orlando Health series will be on Thursday, September 14th featuring Dr. Sean Snaith and an economic outlook.