How MAC develops its policy positions is the subject of the newest episode of Podcast 83.

Host Stephan Currie was joined by the Governmental Affairs team of Deena Bosworth, Madeline Fata and Samantha Gibson to discuss the draft platforms that MAC members will review and approve on Sept. 26 at the 2024 Annual Conference.

“Our internal committees focus on different policy areas,” said Bosworth, “Every year, we also go over our platforms for our membership … We don't bring every single bill that the Legislature introduces in front of each one of our committees. That would … really not be the best use of our time.

“After the committees do their work, those platforms go to our Board of Directors, and so the MAC Board reviews those policy positions that they've taken. … Then those platforms go to our general membership,” she added.

Among proposed changes for this cycle’s platforms are:

• Economic development: “We've changed our platforms a bit to say, hey, counties need to be at the table if taxes are going to be abated for economic development purposes, counties need to be involved,” Bosworth explained.

• Mental health: “We really honed our opposition to any attempt to privatize the public mental health system, which keeps coming up session after session,” Gibson reported.

• Septic code: “We've talked about (a septic code) at length in the Environmental Committee,” said Fata. “So, we really expanded this section on a statewide septic code and sewage solutions. We included several new bullet points to address some of the concerns that have come out of those conversations.”