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For decades, the annual Pennsylvania Chamber Dinner has been the premier platform for all parties to come together with the Commonwealth's most influential movers and shakers.
This year was no different.
On Oct. 3, Pennsylvania's top business, governmental, and civic leaders gathered at the Hershey Lodge for a mix of politics and policy. The evening's program highlighted our state's central role in this year's national political landscape, celebrated the success that can be accomplished when we work together to move the Commonwealth forward, and hosted conversations with our candidates for U.S. senate and governor.
In short, the Pennsylvania Chamber dinner showcased the best of Pennsylvania.
As the dinner's keynote speakers, former Democratic National Committee Chairwoman Donna Brazile and Republican New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, noted, an informed electorate is vital to a well-functioning democracy. Dating back several decades, the Pennsylvania Chamber has proudly assumed the responsibility of informing the state's electorate by holding candidate debates at our dinner.
Where else would candidates running to represent the fifth-largest state in the nation find a captive audience representing nearly 10,000 businesses of all sizes, in every industry, making up half of the state's private workforce, not to mention countless state and national media outlets, only weeks before voters head to the polls?
This year, our dinner included separate, 30-minute candidate conversations with Republican U.S. Senate nominee Dr. Mehmet Oz and Democrat Gubernatorial nominee Josh Shapiro. While every candidate was invited, these two participated -- and, as a result, addressed thousands of Pennsylvania's most influential leaders.
Pennsylvania is vast in both population and geography. We have nearly 13 million people across seven media markets, many of which cost hundreds of thousands of dollars -- or more -- per week to advertise.
The Pennsylvania Chamber Dinner transcends these geographic and financial divides by bringing the state's leaders and media together in one place. The audience -- including approximately 1,500 people seated in the Hershey Lodge and thousands more watching live via statewide cable coverage -- got to hear two candidates from different parties, for different statewide offices, discuss their shared goal of putting Pennsylvania's interests first.
But beyond the platform the dinner provides, it also presents a chance to connect and collaborate -- to celebrate past successes and set future goals.
As the dinner proved, despite our polarized political climate, the Pennsylvania Chamber constantly finds ways to bring people of diverse backgrounds and viewpoints together for Pennsylvania. Recently, we worked in a bipartisan fashion with Republican majorities in the General Assembly and a Democratic governor to cut our state's corporate net income tax from 9.99 percent to 4.99 percent by 2031 -- the most significant business tax reform in three decades.
Many of those bipartisan lawmakers attended this year's dinner. In fact, Democratic House Leader Joanna McClinton and Attorney General Shapiro sat together with Republican House Majority Leader Kerry Benninghoff and Speaker of the House Bryan Cutler.
That tax package also contained incentives for small businesses that will allow employers to invest in their operations and their people.
All told, these reforms put Pennsylvania first and are a win-win for businesses of all sizes, for job seekers, and for an economy that is still rebounding from the pandemic.
And they prove that when we put the best interests of Pennsylvanians first and work together, anything is possible.
Our goals don't stop there.
Our common ground is a better Pennsylvania. We will continue working, together for Pennsylvania, to keep our positive momentum going and find areas of compromise -- on issues like criminal justice reform, public safety, education, workforce development, broadband expansion, technology and innovation, health care, regulatory reform, infrastructure, and a tax system that encourages job creation and rewards innovation.
After all, Pennsylvania is amazing not only because of where we are, but because of who we are--the bold and innovative spirit we embrace and the willingness to work together to make big achievements happen.
That spirit -- the one the Pennsylvania Chamber embodies -- was on full display in early October in Hershey.
Luke Bernstein is the president and CEO of the PA Chamber of Business and Industry