Priority agenda items:

• Support the passage of an infrastructure-focused economic stimulus package at both the State and Federal levels and advocate for the entrepreneurialization of state infrastructure dollars in order to create new jobs and stimulate the economy.
• Lead efforts to establish a long-term commitment to the entrepreneurializing of state infrastructure dollars with specific interest but not limited to professional engineering services.
• Support the passage of joint and several liability reform, replacing it with a system of proportionate liability, and support other efforts to insure that civil claims against engineering companies are deemed meritorious before allowing to proceed to trial.

Other advocacy issues:

Environmental

• Lead efforts to require that the Division of Water Quality (DWQ), within the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR), allow the use of three-sided, open-bottom, or bottomless culverts throughout the State, based on sound engineering practice, when the structures will be located on private property and not owned, operated or maintained by the North Carolina Department of Transportation (NCDOT), regardless of whether the structure is founded in bedrock or not.
• Support continued investment in North Carolina’s water/wastewater/stormwater infrastructure, advocating that Federal funds are maximized by entrepreneurializing those dollars and investing in engineering solutions.
• Support legislative and administrative rules that use reclaimed water as a resource.
• Oppose legislative and administrative rules that would remove the P.E. certification requirement for onsite septic systems of less than 3,000 gpd.
• Support the application of risk-based standards for remediation of groundwater for all waste management programs administered by DENR.
• Support legislative and administrative rules that regulate non-point sources of water pollution on a basin-by-basin basis.
• Support securing legislative authorization for additional participation by registered professional engineers on state boards and commissions.

Transportation

• Support the creation and adoption of new transportation funding mechanisms, including but not limited to local option revenue sources that also allow those local governments to procure their own contracts for new transportation infrastructure initiatives, the immediate removal of the cap on the gas tax, and those recommended by the 21st Century Transportation Commission. 
• Encourage the entrepreneurialization of all transportation dollars in order to create new jobs and stimulate the economy.

Economic Development

• Support a dedicated source of funding for the One North Carolina Fund and maintaining an availability of $20 million to keep NC competitive in the national and global marketplace.
• Support clarification that industrial machinery, which is not affixed to or a part of a building or structure, is not subject to a building inspection (UL).
• Support continuing to fully fund enrollment growth in the University of North Carolina and the Community College System.

Professional

• Support the strengthening of and/or enforcing of the provisions of North Carolina’s Umstead Act, which precludes state government from using tax dollars to:

• directly or indirectly sell goods in competition with N.C. citizens;
• render services to the public that are ordinarily provided by private businesses;
• lease space in a state owned or operated building for purposes of selling goods or rendering services in competition with private business;
• contract with anyone to sell goods or render services in competition with private business.
• Support the passage of legislation that would provide clarification that professional engineers shall continue to be allowed to represent clients before quasi-judicial bodies throughout this state.

• Oppose any new taxes on professional services, specifically those targeted to the engineering industry.
• Support limiting the use of "reverse auction" for procurement of engineers and architects to those projects that have no public dollars involved in the project, including those dollars that are in the form of public incentives and/or a result of a public/private partnership.
• Support legislation to correct previous language regarding the use of existing plans for State Construction projects, clarifying that the State Construction may use existing plans where feasible instead of mandating that they shall use the plans where feasible.
• Support efforts to reduce employer costs associated with employee health insurance and workers’ compensation insurance
• Oppose efforts to implement the use of an e-verify system in North Carolina due to the expense and challenges with use of the system for employers associated with the program.
• Support the use and/or continued use of the Qualifications based Selection for the procurement of all professional services by all government entities in North Carolina and opposing any attempts to bypass Qualifications Based Selection for the procurement of professional services, regardless of the project delivery method.
• Support phasing in a reduction of the corporate income tax rate to 5.9 percent and reduce the highest marginal personal income tax rate to at least 7.75 percent.