Legislative Watch Write Up; May 10th

The Legislative Watch Council met Friday for our last meeting of the session to review legislation on behalf of the business community.  The 2010 legislative session will wrap up this Wednesday, May 12^th which means there are only 3 days left.  The Chamber would like to send a special thank you to all the members of our Legislative Watch Council for their hard work and time spent helping support and defend the business community – Thank you LWC!

LWC reviewed HB10-1430; New K-12 Ed Assessment System Representative Solano and Senator Hudak.  Education is a key driver for workforce quality and for overall economic health.  This bill would derail SB 191, which the Chamber’s LWC had voted to support earlier in the session, by removing the assessments that should be used to judge teacher effectiveness.  The bill takes the state of our federal compliance by eliminating the 9^th grade CSAP, and instead replaces it, and the ACT, with a yet to be created "postsecondary and workforce readiness assessment."  While the bill sponsors claim it will save money, the creation of an entirely new assessment program would most likely end up with an increase in costs, not a decrease.  The LWC voted to oppose this bill, stating that Colorado doesn’t need to create an entirely new program from scratch when one is already in use.

The next bill up for consideration was HB10-1409; State Employee Compensation by Representative Pommer and Senator Tapia.  This bill proposes to change Colorado State workers from a strictly performance-based system to a "progressive step" structure.  Legislative Watch Council members believe that it will in effect take performance out of compensation, and a higher cost to keep the same numbers of employees to the state budget.  After discussion the LWC voted to oppose this bill as likely to increase the cost of government while creating unfair competition between the state and private employers.

At last week’s LWC meeting we discussed HB10-1429; Legislative Review Of Tax Benefits by Representative Paul Weissmann.  His proposal would have mandated that the House and Senate annually review the specific business tax credits and tax incentives to decide if they should be continued, repealed, or modified.  The LWC was quite alarmed by the proposal,  believing that it singled out business when there should be a comprehensive look at all of Colorado’s tax policy if anything was going to be reviewed.  The LWC asked YOU to help fight that bill and the Chamber was successful!  On Tuesday, the House killed HB-1429 on a 32-to-26 vote with local Representatives Gardner, Waller, Liston, Looper, Lambert, and Stephens all voting against this bill.  Sadly, Representatives Merrifield and Apuan felt that it was more important to stand with the anti-business Denver leadership than with their own community and they voted in favor of passing the bill. Thank you all for reaching out and contacting Representative Apuan and others.  This legislation would have created more uncertainty for business in already tough times and we are pleased to see that it failed.

In addition to HB10-1429, the State Senate also killed HB 1350, a bill by one of the toughest critics of Colorado Springs and El Paso County, Rep. Sal Pace (D-Pueblo) and trial attorney and State Senator Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora).  HB 1350 was an incredibly unfriendly bill for Colorado businesses.  Its original form dictated that businesses had to disclose and defend economic development incentives to determine if they really did create jobs.  If they couldn’t prove that they created jobs, then the provisions would have to be eliminated.  It sends a horrible message to businesses outside Colorado looking to relocate to another state.  It also added to our concerns that Colorado is becoming known as an unfriendly state to business growth.  The Senate is to be commended for this smart move!!!

As the session wraps up things are still forward moving at high-speed, often sneaking in under the radar as they move.  In addition to all of the LWC’s efforts, the Chambers’ Director of Governmental Affairs, Ernest House, will be at the Capitol fighting for business.  The Chamber continues to work on the many bills we have reviewed this session, including SB10-114; the Taxpayer Transparency Act Of 2010 which is strongly opposed by Legislative Watch Council members, and we are proud to represent the Colorado Springs Business Community at the State Capitol every day.

The Greater Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce supports business and business growth legislation.  If you are interested in participating in the LWC or getting involved with the chamber’s legislative advocacy, please contact Jessica McMullen at jmcmullen@cscc.org or 719-575-4327.