CONCORD — As election season hits full force, it’s time for the Business & Industry Association to build its legislative agenda for next session of the Legislature.

BIA, the statewide chamber of commerce and leading nonpartisan business advocate with over 400 members, is completing its four-part public policy roundtable talks in locations across New Hampshire. Our roundtables allow us to gather input from many of the state’s business leaders, more than 100 participants this year. Our 2024 talks coincide with the completion of the primary campaigns, and most notably the race for governor.

Republican Kelly Ayotte and Democrat Joyce Craig advanced to the top-of-ticket race in statewide elections in the Nov. 5 general election that also includes the presidential and congressional races.

The input we receive from our roundtables is critical to the development of our legislative agenda. This is particularly true in statewide election years. To no surprise, participants ranked workforce development and housing as the top threats to New Hampshire’s economic climate. The state’s high energy costs and limited availability and cost of child care were also cited as major challenges during roundtables in Concord, Portsmouth and Bretton Woods, with the last being held Sept. 17 in Keene.

Our roundtables take a deeper look at the most prominent issues. New Hampshire’s housing shortage is a top example. In recent years, the discussion of root causes has focused on overly restrictive local zoning and land-use policies. But we’ve also heard from developers that state environmental regulations, such as setback and stormwater containment rules, drive up the cost of housing projects, making the final product less affordable. We also heard during this year’s roundtables that the lack of municipal water and wastewater connections makes high-density housing projects of all types prohibitively expensive or impossible in many cases.

The state continues to seek ways to spur more housing options affordable for workers and young families. However, this past session failed to build on key gains during the spring session. Thus, it’s critical for BIA to continue to be the unifying voice of business to promote the economic benefits of a balanced housing market. As one roundtable participant said, housing is New Hampshire’s number one issue, five times higher than the number two issue. Many other issues, including the worker shortage and child care shortage, are connected to the lack of housing. BIA and the business community, he said, must lean into the issue and collectively tell lawmakers to hurry up in addressing it.

The nature of BIA’s work includes advocacy with lawmakers and that inevitably means playing defense against flawed bills that could hurt New Hampshire’s business climate. But it’s increasingly clear that making New Hampshire the top state for business requires a much more proactive approach. That’s why BIA continues to build our “Blueprint for NH,” a comprehensive plan to address the roadblocks to long-term, broad and sustainable success that increases prosperity for all Granite Staters.

New Hampshire’s nascent life sciences sector is on a path to develop groundbreaking medical technology that will save lives and provide new high-paying jobs and rewarding career opportunities. We also have many companies pioneering the next generation of manufacturing, positioning New Hampshire to be a global leader. Both sectors have pronounced economic multiplier effects that spread into other sectors and academia. The rising tide lifts all boats if you will.

Achieving the full promise of these cutting-edge industries depends on us solving our major challenges. The key to economic growth is increased productivity driven by innovation, education, efficiency, and infrastructure. In New Hampshire, that means creating a balanced housing market, lowering energy costs, improving all levels of education and making post-secondary education more affordable. This will help the state retain and attract the next generation of workers, which is essential as 27% of New Hampshire’s workforce is age 55 and older, highest among the states.

BIA’s roundtables are microcosms of what can happen when people are invested in their communities and state and committed to working together. New Hampshire’s top challenges are daunting, but solving them will deliver lasting returns on investment and generational opportunities for advancement throughout our workforce.

BIA will continue to collaborate with our members, the business community at large, lawmakers and other leaders who see the great promise ahead. If you would like more information about BIA’s work to champion a prosperous economic future for New Hampshire, please visit BIAofNH.com.

Michael Skelton is president and CEO of the Business & Industry Association.