Of the Utah Technology Council’s many roles, one of its most important is the organization’s role in working with the Utah Legislature as an agent for change. Each year UTC establishes an agenda of high priorities in support of the technology and life science industries in Utah. This year has been no exception: UTC established a set of 10 high priorities for recent legislative sessions. Seven of these were technology issues and three were pertaining to health system reform. (Readers can visit www.utahtechcouncil.org to review a full detailed list.)

We are extremely pleased to note that, with the help of our involved members, we met success with nine of our ten priorities. Some of the key initiatives UTC supported included the following:

• House Joint Resolution 8 regarding secret ballots that is vital in protecting Utah businesses and working families against unions’ “card check” (preventative action against possible federal legislation). This resolution was a proposed amendment to Utah’s Constitution to reaffirm and protect the right to vote by secret ballot, and it successfully passed.

• UTC successfully led the opposition to H.B. 450 Trademark Amendments which resulted in a “No Vote” in the Senate because it was determined there were significant issues that may adversely impact Utah’s technology sector and its image as a business-friendly state.

• S.B. 240 USTAR (Utah Science Technology and Research Initiative Amendments) received funding of $33 million from the federal stimulus package. It has already achieved a return on investment of positive inflow of federal and industry-sponsored research dollars and is ahead of schedule in reaching milestones that will lead to sig-nificant growth in Utah’s economy.

• The Engineering Initiative was funded with existing funding within the State Board of Regents at the current fiscal year 2009 level plus $2 million dollars in one-time funding.

This success will have a tremendous impact on Utah’s future, but I can’t emphasize enough how much we rely upon our members’ help to achieve these outcomes, which are truly some of the most powerful values UTC provides. Our Public Policy Form meets every week during the six- week session and has succeeded in becoming a trusted resource to our legislators.

“Our membership really re-sponded to our legislative action alert emails with calls and emails to their legislators,” stated Terry Bagley, co-chair of the UTC’s Public Policy Forum and CEO of Salt Lake-based Centershift. “This was especially the case with H.J.R. 8 Secret Ballot, which required a two-thirds majority in both houses. Our high-tech and life science members helped make the difference in the voting on that extremely important, against-unionizing resolution.”

The Engineering Initiative remains a critical component to the success of the state of Utah. “The Utah Technology Council was extremely effective in communicating to the Governor and legislators the importance of engineering to the state’s economy,” said Richard Brown, Dean of the College of Engineering, University of Utah. “With Engineering Initiative support, the University of Utah has achieved a growth of 69 percent in engineering degrees granted and a doubling of engineering-related research to $50,400,000 per year.”

Only a fraction of Utah’s companies are fully aware of the value UTC is providing on the legislative priorities front. For example, an emerging national initiative would require every company with 10 or more employees to participate in a “card check” registry program with the labor unions. Next year’s election will include a vote on a constitutional amendment against this practice. Would any of us want to be faced with this kind of a requirement? The card check program could create a situation that intimidates your employees into joining.

I invite every Utah citizen and business person to consider joining our efforts, and to become more aware of the critical role UTC is continuing to play as an agent for change.

Richard Nelson is president and CEO of the Utah Technology Council (UTC) and immediate past CEO of the national Technology Councils of North America (TECNA). For more information about UTC and its essential member resources and events, readers can visit www.utahtechcouncil.org.