This week, Chamber President and CEO Kelly Brough urged House legislators to support a bill that would reenact the hospital provider fee as an enterprise fund. With the legislative session drawing to a close, the Chamber and more than 100 organizations continue to support this solution and urge action on this bill and accurately reflect the state’s true economic growth in the general fund.
“By including the $689 million collected annually by the hospital provider fee as general fund dollars, we are not accurately reflecting our true economic growth as required by TABOR,” Brough wrote.
She added, “the time to act is now,” when no TABOR refunds would be at stake. To learn more or get involved, click here.
Primaries Must Be Open to All Voters
Today more than 1 million registered voters cannot participate in primaries to select the candidates who will represent them. And those who can weren’t too pleased with the latest caucus process.
The Chamber has long been an advocate of giving unaffiliated voters access to the primary process (listen to our podcast on the issue) and have formed Let Colorado Vote to encourage allowing all voters to participate. However, House Bill 1454, which would restore the presidential primary, doesn’t go far enough to remove the hurdles for independent voters.
“We are committed to working with the sponsors of the bill to ensure that we can remove any barriers to ensuring that all Colorado voters can have their voices heard in the primary,” said Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Kelly Brough.
Supporting Businesses, Avoiding Double Penalty
The Chamber testified this week in opposition to House Bill 1435, which would impose a fee against employers of more than 250 staff who pay employees less than $12 per hour to create an enterprise fund to improve health care services.
Although there are good intentions behind this bill, Colorado businesses who employ more than 50 people are today required to provide health insurance to at least 95 percent of their employees and dependents under the Affordable Care Act. And, if an employer doesn’t provide coverage or provides coverage that is unaffordable, the employer must make a monthly employer shared responsibility payment. This bill would essentially create double jeopardy for any employer who is already paying such fees.
Business in Colorado currently underwrite the cost of health care coverage for over 50 percent of all Coloradans and in addition pay fees into the exchange to help cover the 93 percent of Coloradans who have health insurance.
“Not only is this bill unfair in its assumptions about the business community, but even more frustrating is the fact this bill was intended to simply be just that – a negative message about business. If it was anything else, there would have been a process to invite input from the business community. There would have been time to discuss the impact this bill might have on companies in Colorado. There would have been an interest in the unintended consequences of this legislation,” Brough said. “Clearly the goal was to make a statement.”
The committee vote passed 7-6. Click here to read the Chamber’s full testimony.
The Chamber is taking positions on bills weekly during the legislative session. Click here to see all the bills the Chamber has taken positions on this session.