Chamber Supports Fentanyl Bill and Seeks to Address Possession

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House Speaker Alec Garnett (D-Denver), Rep. Mike Lynch (R-Larimer, Weld), Sen. Brittany Pettersen (D-Jefferson) and Sen. John Cooke (R-Weld) introduced House Bill 1326 last Friday, prompting a critical statewide discussion about fentanyl use in Colorado and the best way to curb its proliferation.

Colorado Public Radio reported in February that fentanyl fatalities in Colorado are rising faster than in any other state, with the exception of Alaska. The impact of fentanyl in our state is shown not just in the data, but in the decay of community areas that are now saturated with narcotics, the regular headlines of overdose and fentanyl poisoning, and the very real impact addiction has on the lives of Coloradans and their loved ones.

House Bill 1326, Fentanyl Accountability And Prevention, changes criminal penalties for fentanyl possession and possession with intent to distribute. It requires that, for certain offenses, the court order placement in a residential addiction treatment facility; expands the list of eligible entities that can receive Narcan and fentanyl testing strips to include libraries, colleges, community centers and more; charges the Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment to develop and implement a statewide fentanyl prevention and education campaign; and expands the list of entities eligible for harm reduction grants.

This bill’s introduction renews a conversation started by House Bill 1263 in 2019, which reduced certain drug possession charges from felonies to misdemeanor offenses. Opponents of the 2019 change say it has made it more difficult to punish dealers and is a contributing factor to the current crisis. Several legislators, law enforcement associations and the mayors of Colorado’s two largest cities, Denver Mayor Michael Hancock and Colorado Springs Mayor John Suthers, have said misdemeanor charges are inadequate to address this issue.

The reality is, no amount of fentanyl is safe in our community, and it is imperative that we act quickly and firmly to bring this crisis to a halt.

The prevalence of fentanyl in every corner of our state has led to safety concerns that make Colorado a less desirable destination when recruiting businesses, undermines the value of infrastructure investments taxpayers have supported on the promise these improvements will lead to increased economic growth, and prevents metropolitan communities from confidently restoring downtown business activity.

We are supportive of House Bill 1326 as a necessary first step to address a multifaceted issue; however, we will be seeking amendments that are proportional to the fatal impact of this drug. We believe that the possession of fentanyl must be restored to a felony offense if we are to have a commensurate response to the severity, pervasiveness and lethality of this crisis.

Collective Bargaining Draft Continues to Face Opposition

With only about a month left in the 2022 legislative session, there are many high priority bills we are still waiting to see. Though these items have not been introduced, bill drafts are circulating on some of our top issues, giving us insight into what they might include.

Collective bargaining is one such priority item that has not yet made it off the drafting desk. For the past two sessions, a collective bargaining bill for public employees has been in the works, despite strong opposition from local governments and higher education institutions. Recently, however, Gov. Jared Polis and bill sponsors have narrowed down the list of public sector employees who could engage in collective bargaining with their employers.

In the original draft, collective bargaining was available to any public sector employee who wanted to join a union, but a recent revision has limited this. In the newest collective bargaining draft, only public sector employees in counties and higher education are allowed to set up unions and engage in collective bargaining with their employers. K-12 public education workers are not included in this version.

So far, the collective bargaining drafts have received opposition from local governments, counties, public education, higher education and others. Public sector collective bargaining continues to face opposition, in part, due to the large financial impact it would have on the state and local communities. The 2020 bill was predicted to cost $6 million in the 2021-22 budget, but upon further inspection it ended up being closer to $8 million. Community colleges are saying that this year’s legislation would come at an even higher cost, with predictions as high as $10 million. The draft does not address the cost of collective bargaining.

The decision as to whether public employees can unionize should be a local one. That’s the Colorado way. It’s why we have fought to maintain in Colorado a unique balance that shouldn’t be upended by organized labor interests through this ‘rumored’ legislation.

To learn more about the Chamber’s stance on collective bargaining, read the op-ed from our president and CEO, J. J. Ament, who explores the pitfalls of mandated collective bargaining law.

Chamber Neutral Toward Newest Daylight Savings Bill

The Chamber previously opposed Senate Bill 135, Standard Time In Colorado, over concerns that mountain time as the permanent time standard would make our state a national outlier and be a source of complication and confusion for industries that depend on predictable, uniform interstate time systems. Divorcing ourselves from the national standard would impact sectors ranging from aviation to tourism. We believe that any conversation about time zones requires federal standardization if we do not want to isolate Colorado’s business.

However, since we took our position on Senate Bill 135, the national conversation around time zones has changed. With this in mind, the Chamber has taken a neutral stance on House Bill 1297 given that the Sunshine Protection Act is making its way through Congress. We believe that Colorado should either adopt daylight savings time year-round with agreements from our neighboring states, or have follow a national mandate avoid making our state a regional outlier.

Here are the bills we took a stance on this week.

Support

  • House Bill 1305 reduces the amount employers pay into the state paid family and medical leave program. Employers would pay eighty-one hundredths of 1% of wagers per employee instead of nine-tenths of 1% currently. While we are appreciative of the premium relief this bill affords, it comes at a time when the cost of doing business in Colorado is rising. We support relief that eases the burden from those increased costs, but we remain vigilant about the broader business climate of the state.
  • House Bill 1310 clarifies what is a qualified distribution from a 529 account regarding state income tax to include expenses for fees, books, supplies and equipment. We appreciate the expansion of qualified distributions to support workforce development, and we value putting into statute flexibility for students pursuing nontraditional education models or career training.
  • Senate Bill 163 establishes the Procurement Equity Program within the Department of Administration and Personnel to begin implementing the findings of the state procurement disparity study. The bill directs DPA to engage in procurement bidding assistance for historically underutilized businesses. This bill is congruent with our Prosper CO initiatives to support minority entrepreneurship and lift up BIPOC businesses.

Oppose

  • Senate Bill 161 changes the penalty for failure to provide requested information to the Division of Labor Standards and Statistics in the Department of Labor and Employment to $50 per day instead of a misdemeanor, requires employers to provide a former employee with notice within ten days before deducting any property the employee failed to return from their pay and pay the employee the withheld amount within 14 days after the property is returned, and pay two times the amount of the deduction if the employer does not provide required notice. The Chamber firmly believes wage theft is wrong, but certain aspects of this bill are duplicative as they are already enshrined into law. This bill goes beyond wage theft prevention and creates undue burden on our businesses.

Testimony