Talking Shop with Dan Mehan, president of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry

For more than a decade, Dan Mehan has been at the helm of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry working to make Missouri a better state to do business in. He visited and spoke at the Show Me Center Friday at the Cape Girardeau Area Chamber of Commerce's First Friday Coffee.

Q: Describe the role of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

A: What the Missouri Chamber does is perform the function of advocacy for the employer community. We're out to make Missouri the most competitive business climate we can. To do so, we have four full-time lobbyists that represent different areas of the law and we try to be the strongest, most dependable lobbying organization that the state has.

Q: How did your career evolve to get to where you are today?

A: I have been at the Missouri Chamber for 16 years, the first three as vice president of government affairs. Then the president retired and through a selection process the board chose me. I've been doing that for the last 13 years. I kind of lucked into it. A friend of a friend introduced me to a board member. Out of the blue, he called me and asked if I'd be interested in a job. I was working at Washington University in St. Louis at the time, raising money. I said I'd give it a try and go to the interview and, what do you know, they offered me the job. That was Sept. 14, 1995, on Oct. 14, 1995, I got married, and on Oct. 30 I started working for the Missouri Chamber. A lot of changes happened very quickly.

Q: What do you see as the biggest challenges today for Missouri business owners?

A: A lot of them face the same challenges, but it changes sometimes with the size. Quality workforce and competitive business climate, which we strive to improve. What we find is there are opportunities out there, but to find qualified workers out there for those opportunities sometimes is the difficulty. We must have a fair court system, predictable insurance rates and a fair tax system. Unfortunately the federal government is causing uncertainty in a lot of these areas. That's disturbing. What can't they take away from us? Our location. We should be the logistics and distribution center for not just the country, but for the continent. We have to recognize we are in a global economy. We strive to find export opportunities for small and midsized businesses that may not have the opportunity to look out because they're busy doing payroll, they're busy selling their product and they're busy trying to staff their line.

Q: What are some things that make Missouri a good place to operate a business?

A: Location, work ethic. We're generally low tax. We're low utility cost. Those are great attributes.

Q: Is Missouri's unemployment rate, at 8.2 percent in November, likely to go down in 2012? Do you think employers here will add more jobs in the coming year?

A: I think the rate will go down. It won't go down fast enough. We will probably be on the national trend, hopefully we will be better, but we'll have to see. There are signs of improvement out there. Most recently, the purchasing index of major manufacturers bumped up. It's still lower than it was six months ago, but it's trending better. Hiring is improving. The trajectory is finally going the right way, but the trajectory is not at the best angle yet. There's still significant hesitation and uncertainty. Unfortunately a lot of it is clouded by the election that's coming up. People are hunkering down and saying let's see what happens. People are still hoarding their resources and waiting to see the opening before they plow into it.

Q: There's been a lot of talk over the past two years about reforming Missouri's tax credits. What tax credits are most beneficial to businesses and do you believe changes are needed?

A: I think a model tax credit is the Missouri Quality Jobs program whereas an applicant you have to pay better average wages, and offer very credible good health insurance. You have to have the jobs in place, the boots on the ground, before the state issues the credit. You have to perform before the state steps up. That's a responsible way of doing it. Job training credits have been extremely valuable. Historic preservation tax credits have helped the major metros in a big way and communities like Cape. Tax credits do work, it's just that we've got into a situation where Missouri is off the charts. For these legislators to try to budget, we need to try to rein that in. We agree on that. We just wish we could agree on how.