By Mark Hansel
NKyTribune managing editor
There are times when evolving issues overshadow a scheduled event.
An appearance by U.S. Sen. Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (center of photo in gray suit) drew plenty of media attention and hundreds of protestors outside the Hotel Covington. Lost in the attention given to McConnell and the demonstrators, however, was a discussion of federal issues of regional importance by a panel of local experts (photos by Mark Hansel).
That was certainly the case late last month when U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell’s appearance at a joint Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce/Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber luncheon drew a throng of protestors.
A visit from Sen. McConnell at a time of turmoil in the nation’s capital is big news and hundreds of citizens demonstrating their right to assemble peacefully is equally important.
The purpose of the Federal Issues Luncheon on that Thursday afternoon, however, was to provide an opportunity for the region to focus on three key policy areas during the first 100 days of a new President and Congress. McConnell was invited to deliver the keynote address.
The presentations from three regional experts, Andy Aiello, General Manager of the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky (TANK), Dr. Neville G. Pinto, newly installed president of the University of Cincinnati and Frank Julian, VP of Government, Legal, and Public Affairs, Macy’s Inc., however, kind of got lost in the shuffle.
In the long run, Aiello’s emphasis on transportation and infrastructure, Pinto’s examination of talent development and Julian’s focus on tax reform, might have more local impact than either of the more high-profile events covered extensively on that Thursday afternoon
Julian led off the discussion by pointing out that, at 35 percent, the corporate income tax rate in the U.S. is one of the highest in the world.
“In addition, our tax code is very complicated, which makes it very difficult for our region businesses to compete, both locally and globally,” Julian said. “There is widespread agreement that we really need tax reform in the United States. From a tax policy standpoint, I think that the tax code needs to be fair, it needs to be simple, and it needs to be predictable.”
Julian pointed to several elements that he believes should be present in tax reform.
“One is to substantially lower the rate,” he said. “Our businesses should be able to make investment decisions based on economically prudent factors, not forcing the tax code to drive their business decisions and investment decisions.
Julian also feels tax reform should provide certainty and predictability.
(L to R) Andy Aiello, General Manager of the Transit Authority of Northern Kentucky, Frank Julian, VP of Government, Legal, and Public Affairs, Macy’s Inc. and Dr. Neville G,. Pinto, president of the University of Cincinnati, discussed federal issues at the February luncheon at Hotel Covington.
“We need to eliminate temporary provisions in the tax code,” he said. “Many of you were impacted by the annual saga as to whether the tax extenders were going to be renewed and it just makes it very difficult for businesses to plan, when there is that lack of predictability in the tax code.”
He also highlighted some things that should not be part of tax reform.
He doesn’t think tax reform favor some industries over others or put the burden of reform on the backs of consumers.
“The Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region is blessed to have nine Fortune 500 companies based here, but also 83 percent of the Chamber’s membership are small businesses,” Julian said. “Prudent tax reform will benefit all businesses, large and small, by enabling those businesses to reinvest in their business to create job growth and to reinvest in our community.”
Aiello said that education, workforce development and job creation are critical to success on a local scale, but from a transportation and logistics perspective, this region is attractive because of our location to the rest of the country’s workforce and market. It’s also attractive because of our workforce.
“You can look just down the road, to CVG and Amazon’s $1.4 billion investment there to find evidence that private investment wants to occur (here),” Aiello said. “What our regional chambers have recognized is that it’s just not about having good people and good jobs. It’s actually how we connect to them that matters, how well we move goods to and through our region matters.”
Winning the global market he says, is not just about our assets, but how we connect those assets, and some significant challenges remain there.
“On the infrastructure side, we automatically think about the Brent Spence Bridge and the $4 billion of freight that travels through that corridor every year,” Aiello said. “We are also aware of the growing safety and congestion concerns in that corridor. We need to get more people and more goods through that corridor and through that choke point, in order to realize the full potential of private investment in our region.”
Aiello added that infrastructure throughout the region, including the 85-year-old Western Hills Viaduct and the other bridges and overpasses are also near the end of their life cycle.
Demonstrators outside the Hotel Covington, protesting an appearance by U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell overshadowed a discussion of federal issues inside by a panel of local experts.
“Quite frankly, there are inadequate state and federal funds to address those needs and some of the old approaches throughout the country have not worked,” he said. “We’re going to need to be very creative in how we get more people and goods to and through our region and do so in a way that doesn’t continue to add lanes and add to the congestion.”
The biggest challenge facing the region from a public transit perspective, is that an incomplete system far too often fails in connecting those that want to work to an employer who needs them.
Aiello said that, statistically, in the Greater Cincinnati region, less than 60 percent of the jobs are in areas that have any public transit service.
“If we turn that on its head, that means that more than 40 percent, almost half of the jobs in this region are completely inaccessible to folks without a car,” Aiello said. “That puts us last among our 11 peer cities – behind cities like Cleveland, Columbus, Louisville and Indianapolis, not to mention our peers that are well ahead in this area, such as Denver and Minneapolis. We’ve seen great job growth in this region in the area of logistics, warehousing, manufacturing and healthcare, but many of those jobs are in suburban parts of our community that aren’t accessible or disconnected from transit.”
On the federal level Congress passed the FAST (Fixing America’s Surface Transportation) Act, which is a five-year framework for highway and transit investment. Aiello said it did not, however, identify a long-term, sustainable funding mechanism for transit and highway programs in our country.
Pinto said it is not often that someone arrives into town on a Monday, as he did, and is asked to speak as a regional expert in the same week. He said he feels qualified because the problem of developing and retaining talent is a national issue, not a regional one.
“It’s matching our workforce needs with the skills that we have in our system,” Pinto said. “Employers indicate that it’s difficult to find qualified workers for current job openings. This match is directly connected to the lack of appropriate skills, or poor work or personal habits.”
To complicate matters, Pinto cited research that indicates 65 percent of the jobs that will be filled by current secondary education students moving into the workforce do not exist today.
“For an educator that makes it very challenging, because that causes challenges of the curriculum, the training that has to be developed for these future workforce members,” Pinto said. “Technology is expected to automate a large fraction of the work that people do today.”
He pointed to another report that shows 45 percent of the activities for which people are paid today will disappear through automation within ten years.
“Think about an economy that is going to put a premium on the ability to think creatively, to identify problems or opportunities, to organize thinking to address these problems, (and) to be able to solve these problems,” Pinto said.
The jobs of tomorrow will also require the workforce to be much more technology savvy and the goal is to continue to grow the economy to grow, so Pinto says there is sort of a mismatch there.
“Ideally, if we want our economy to grow, these problems are increasingly become more urgent to resolve,” Pinto said. “The gap is going to become wider and wider.”
In order to negotiate the new landscape Pinto said college graduates will have to continue to be knowledgeable, critical thinkers with a strong set of soft skills that you would expect in the workforce today. But they will also have to be prepared for the jobs that are not defined tomorrow and that will require a new set of skills. It will require creative, adaptable, problem-solvers working on a social and technical environment that will continue to evolve rapidly.
“These are the challenges that we face, the things we do not have a choice, but have to address,” Pinto said. “We in academia are ready to partner with our folks in business to meet that challenge.”
The Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the Cincinnati USA Regional Chamber Federal Issues Luncheon was presented by Fidelity Investments. The event emphasized federal policy concerns and served as a prelude to the Joint DC Fly-in with the two Chambers in early May.
Contact Mark Hansel at mark.hansel@nkytrib.com
