Public Policy Platform

This document serves as a guide for the Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber of Commerce and its members addressing legislative and policy matters so that it can play an influential role in the legislative and regulatory processes. 

1. Jobs: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber is committed to pursuing policies that create and retain good-paying jobs and strengthen our local economy. 

• • Employer Incentives: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports proposals to protect employers from higher costs and to provide meaningful incentives for employers to create new jobs and to strengthen our workforce pool. 
  • International Trade: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports trade and tourism initiatives to spur commerce and to maximize the city/state position in the global economy. 
  • Labor Standards: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports improving California’s competitiveness with other states’ labor standards, particularly as they apply to wages and overtime rules. 
  • Workforce Education: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports a results-oriented approach to public education, workforce training and development to support the city/state job sectors. 
  • Health Care: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports policies that provide the broadest possible coverage without placing a disproportionate and undue burden on employers. 

   2.   Infrastructure: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports further investments into the region’s infrastructure in partnership with the private sector and by securing the region’s fair share of state and federal allocations. 

• • Water: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports proposals for a long-term, comprehensive plan that is reliable and includes conservation, new supply, storage and conveyance that is equitable for all Californians. State funding to support these priorities is essential.   
  • Transportation: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports innovative funding allocations to accommodate increased mobility on the region’s highways and overall transportation system, including goods movement. 
  • Energy: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports policies that encourage reliable sources of affordable and diverse energy supplies, including renewable sources. 
  • Waste Management: The Murrieta Chamber supports policies that encourage realistic, fair and consistent water discharge requirements as well as policies on solid waste management so that the collection, transport, procession anddisposal of solid waste is conducted with minimal impacts on our environment and on our businesses. 
  • Communications: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports uniform state and federal policies that encourage continued investment in telecommunications and improve access to new technologies. 

   3.   Land Use: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports land use policies that balance the needs of meeting affordable housing demands, creating new jobs, protecting industrial, commercial and agricultural zones as well as preserving open space and our quality of life. 

• • Housing: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports strategies that improve the region’s job/housing balance for all income levels throughout the region with conditions that any mandates be balanced with incentives for compliance. 
  • Monitor and support efforts to reform the CEQA, and/or other regulatory entities, that will reduce the regulatory and compliance burden to cities and businesses in Southwest California. 

   4.   Governance: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber continues to support significant reforms to California’s political and budgeting processes as well as the state’s revenue structures. 

• • Budget: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports efforts to reform the California budgeting process and structure to encourage long-term fiscal stability and limits on spending growth with excess revenues put into reserves and/or back into local government. 
  • Ballot Initiatives: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber, when considering positions on ballot initiatives, supports those that seek to improve the region’s business climate and do not further burden the regions and state’s fiscal health. 
  • Elections: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports efforts to promote increased business participation in California’s political process. 
  • Local Control: The Murrieta/Wildomar Chamber supports efforts to increase local control at a City and County level, allowing for more direct access decision making.   

   5.   Tourism 

• • Support & Promote policies to increase travel spending to Southwest Riverside County to help the local economy and provide jobs throughout the region. 

   6.   Economic Development 

• • Review and evaluate policies that ensure that Southwest Riverside County maintains a reputation as an attractive and prosperous location for doing business.   
  • Promote Economic Development opportunities in Southwest Riverside County for business retention, expansion and attraction.

   7.   Artificial Intelligence 

• • Review and evaluate policies related to artificial intelligence to ensure innovation can advance regional economic growth while maintaining strong protections for data privacy, security, and ethical standards. 
  • Support responsible integration of AI technologies that enhance efficiency and sustainability in essential public systems and oppose measures that create excessive regulatory burdens that hinder adoption or slow technological progress.
  • Promote collaboration among academic institutions, businesses, and government agencies to strengthen AI talent development and infrastructure while ensuring that opportunities do not disproportionately favor large corporations over small businesses or local startups.
  • Encourage workforce training and reskilling initiatives that prepare local residents for an AI-driven economy and help mitigate potential job displacement associated with automation without adequate transition planning.
  • Support transparent and ethical AI frameworks that prevent algorithmic bias and protect individual rights, including safeguarding against surveillance uses of AI that lack sufficient oversight or threaten civil liberties.
  • Promote public-private partnerships that leverage AI to address regional challenges and improve overall system performance, while ensuring AI systems deployed in critical functions adhere to strong cybersecurity best practices.
  • Advocate for policies that strengthen cybersecurity and AI security across the region, ensuring organizations can adapt to emerging threats without unnecessary restrictions that impede responsible innovation. 

   8.   Local Control 

• • Support policies that preserve local authority over infrastructure, land use, and sustainability planning while opposing state or federal actions that limit the ability of local governments to manage these responsibilities effectively.
  • Promote the ability of local agencies to develop economic and environmental policies tailored to community needs and oppose one-size-fits-all mandates that impose unnecessary financial or administrative burdens.
  • Encourage flexibility for local governments in the planning and development of water management, energy, broadband, and transportation systems while resisting efforts that preempt local governance or remove decision-making authority.
  • Support public-private partnerships that enhance the funding, development, and maintenance of critical infrastructure projects, ensuring local agencies retain the tools needed to pursue collaborative solutions.
  • Advocate fair and transparent state and federal funding allocations for local projects and oppose unfunded mandates or restrictions that hinder the ability of local jurisdictions to generate revenue for essential infrastructure investments.