TBBA Advocacy Program: Industry Issues

Housing costs would likely be significantly higher if there weren’t an association in place to engage the regulatory agencies at the state and local levels. In our last two issues, we discussed the importance of Governmental Affairs and Political Action Committees (PAC). In this issue of The Building Barometer, we look at the third prong of the advocacy program, the Industry Issues Fund, and how the association works to communicate our perspective to the members as well as the general public.

The Industry Issues Fund helps ensure we are able to address issues of concern and proactively engage the community for the betterment of the industry. The Association’s purpose is to identify the issues and the opportunities where we can tell our story. Examples of this include: working with an entity to do a study on growth and how it impacts the industry, forming a campaign to bring public awareness to the industry, getting involved in transportation issues, a comprehensive plan or a constitutional amendment. The Industry Issues Fund was created to provide a financial mechanism to address activities that impact the building industry such as legislative, constitutional and policy changes. It was created in response to special interest groups that have raised money to fund efforts to both make regulations more costly and to stop growth.

Voluntary contributions by TBBA members to the Industry Issues Fund help to underwrite the cost of legal challenges to regulatory issues, impact fees, building moratoria, as well as data research to counter activist propaganda, and public relations campaigns to tell our side of the story. Rather than any kind of assessment, dues increase, or a percent of value of business, the TBBA Board of Directors knew that members would prefer a fair-share, voluntary approach to funding the effort. Although the issues directly affect builders and developers, all subcontractors, suppliers and service companies are affected and encouraged to participate. Contributions are made on a voluntary basis in the amount of $100.00 or more.