State Legislation

The Chamber supports implementing the steps established in the 2015 Colorado Water Plan, a plan designed to address Colorado’s future water needs and measure its progress. This bill implements one of the actions recommended in the plan and addresses a reuse strategy.

The Chamber’s focus is attracting and retaining top talent. We are committed to opposing legislation that hampers our ability to do so.

The Chamber has long supported the development of the Colorado Academic Standards and the use of smart assessments in our schools. Colorado is now in the process of implementing the standards and assessments that the Chamber believes will equip our students with the skills needed to succeed in a 21st-century workplace. Repealing these standards and assessments will add significant unnecessary cost and delay implementation of the high standards we need for our students.

The Chamber supports business property tax exemptions that aim to further economic development. This bill reduces the tax burden on small business and public utilities from business personal property tax and allows for more investment in equipment and efficiencies to increase production for Colorado businesses.

This bill puts unnecessary restrictions on public-private partnerships (P3s), creating a burdensome and economically unattractive environment to anyone looking partner with or invest in Colorado.

This bill will provide analysis on the feasibility of integrating advanced technologies into government operations, further diversifying and advancing our state’s aerospace industry
while improving public safety.

The Chamber supported the original advanced industry investment tax credit, enacted in 2014, because we know diversification of our key industries is interrelated with our economic success.

This bill encourages local workforce housing in rural Colorado, which supports the growth of our state’s economy by providing diverse housing options for our workers throughout Colorado communities.

The Chamber supports the necessary clarifications to the telehealth law in this bill because it will continue to improve rural patient’s access to quality health care through the use of technology and results in lower cost of care.

The Chamber has long supported the development of the Colorado Academic Standards and the use of smart assessments in our schools. Colorado is now in the process of implementing the standards and assessments that the Chamber believes will equip our students with the skills needed to succeed in a 21st-century workplace.

The Chamber supports efforts to encourage full participation by Colorado employers in a worker’s compensation program. We agree that employers that do not carry workers’ compensation insurance represent a burden to our employment system and ought to be penalized.

The Chamber maintains a firm position that local fracking bans are unconstitutional. We support this bill because it recognizes the private property rights of mineral owners and compensates owners for the financial loss if they are precluded from accessing resources that belong to them.

The Chamber recognizes that the need for transportation infrastructure funding is a statewide issue and must be addressed in a way that provides solutions for all of Colorado. This bill removes funding from CDOT by reducing HOV lane collections; it also focuses solely on one area, designating that any additional funding CDOT receives must be allocated to this one project. This is not a collaborative solution. Finally, this bill attempts to legislate CDOT, requiring them to focus resources on a particular project rather than allowing them to best determine where the greatest need lies.

This bill streamlines the trust administration process and makes it easier for banks and credit unions to provide services to trustees. The Chamber is supportive of legislation that removes burdensome regulations from businesses while protecting consumer rights.

This is a process that is already addressed by many authorities and doesn’t need to be legislated. Urban renewal and tax-increment financing are important tools for revitalizing, reenergizing and redeveloping communities and creating economic development; this bill may stifle development in the areas that need it most.

This bill eliminates the ability of municipalities to utilize an important tool meant to aid in business attraction for suburban areas, which is vital to economic growth throughout Colorado.

Although we support finding a long-term solution to addressing the needs of our roads and bridges, this bill isn’t meaningful unless we pair it with significant revenue.

Our economy depends on working together to ensure that our youth are prepared to enter the talent pipeline. It’s important that we equip our students with 21st-century skills, prepare them for the future needs of businesses and for the jobs our economy depends on.

This bill offers reasonable reform to ninth-grade testing while preserving smart assessments in our schools.

Our economy depends on working together to ensure that our youth are prepared to enter the workforce. It’s important that we equip our students with 21st-century skills, prepare them for the future needs of businesses and for the jobs our economy depends on. This bill provides for consistency in academic standards and access to materials and resources to accomplish this.

The Chamber is a strong supporter of TABOR’s requirement that all tax increases should be decided by Colorado voters. Because this bill addresses the formula used to determine the cap and does not impact voters’ rights, we’re supportive of the change. This modification better reflects the state’s economic growth and will help free up critical funding for transportation infrastructure and education.

The Chamber supported the original benefit corporation legislation in 2013 and supports these technical fixes that will increase transparency and disclosures to stockholders.

This bill encourages student participation in STEM courses, a field that currently holds 23% of all Colorado jobs and continues to grow. Our economy depends on us working together to ensure that our youth are prepared to enter the talent pipeline. It’s important that we equip our students with 21st-century skills, prepare them for the future needs of businesses and for the jobs our economy depends on.

The current patchwork of sales and use tax laws throughout Colorado are particularly challenging for Colorado businesses. The recommendations derived from the sales and use tax task force would be especially helpful to businesses with locations in multiple jurisdictions operating under multiple tax laws in Colorado.

The Chamber is supportive of this pilot program, as prescribed in the Colorado Water Plan, as it provides an alternative method for farmers to monetize their water rights rather than simply selling them.

This program promotes energy efficiency and reduces energy costs of businesses and individuals. The bill does not preclude a utility from exceeding the program targets and thereby helping business and residential customers achieve higher energy savings.

This is a thoroughly negotiated bill that offers a compromise to improve mental impairment coverage in workers’ compensation insurance for high stress professions while keeping costs down and avoiding frivolous claims.

The Chamber is supportive of a diverse energy economy and this bill encourages investment in innovation, infrastructure and these alternative energy technologies.

The Chamber supports implementing the steps established in the 2015 Colorado Water Plan, a plan designed to address Colorado’s future water needs and measure its progress. This bill implements one of the actions recommended in the plan and encourages people to participate in water conservation programs.

This bill offers a long-term statewide solution to addressing the needs of transportation infrastructure by pairing it with sustainable funding. Without significant investment in our state’s infrastructure, our economy and ability to attract workers will suffer. This bill aligns with the Chamber’s transportation principles.

This bill is a mandate that interferes with private contracts and restricts carriers’ ability to create their own network as a strategy that can help businesses and their employees contain costs of health care.

Caps on noneconomic damages have been in effect since the late 1980s and they are periodically indexed for inflation as appropriate. This bill will create a precedent that jeopardizes other noneconomic caps in our statutes and will have a negative effect on the business environment of Colorado by increasing insurance premiums and making our state less business friendly.

Colorado has the most stringent oil and gas regulations in the country, which are regarded as best practices nationally and internationally. This legislation undermines the legitimacy of the 2015 Colorado oil and gas task force, which produced a number of comprehensive recommendations from a diverse group of stakeholders.

The Chamber supports this bill because it helps alleviate the burden that new rules and regulations can impose on small businesses. Small businesses typically don’t have the capacity to employ full-time regulatory staff members, making addressing rule changes especially challenging.

This bill helps ensure homeowners are informed and able to resolve issues without having to resort to costly and time-intensive litigation. Although we realize that House Bill 1279 alone will not solve all of Colorado’s housing problems, we hope it will help spur the development of attainable housing options for our millennials, seniors, public servants and other Coloradans struggling to buy a home.

This legislation sets a dangerous precedent by putting into statute a mandate for how and where a business must operate as a condition of doing business with the state.

Our economy depends on youth who are prepared for the talent pipeline. We must equip our students with 21st-century skills to meet the future needs of businesses and for the jobs our economy depends on. This bill aims to create a statewide vision, a strategy and an action plan for education and the associated funding sources so that all students, regardless of the school they attend in Colorado, can meet the needs of our workforce.

The Chamber supports implementing the steps established in the 2015 Colorado Water Plan, a plan designed to address Colorado’s future water needs and measure its progress. This bill implements one of the actions recommended in the plan.

The Chamber recognizes that the economic growth of our state depends in part on our aging population having sufficient income in retirement and that increasing retirement savings in Colorado is beneficial for the long-term economy of our state. However, the Chamber is strongly opposed to a mandate that will create an additional burden on businesses, particularly small businesses who don’t have the resources to manage the implementation complexities that this proposal would enact.

This is a process that is already addressed by many companies and doesn’t need to be legislated. This bill puts an additional mandate on business that would have a substantial financial impact on employers. Businesses should be allowed to determine for themselves a hiring policy that works best them.

This bill would be costly and burdensome for employers as they would be required to implement an additional employee payroll deduction. It would also impose significant administrative and operational costs.

While the Chamber is actively engaged in finding solutions to incentivize the building of attainable housing for our workforce, this bill would have a negative effect. An increase in documentary fees would result in higher real estate costs.

The Chamber opposes HB17-1314. This legislation is unnecessary because the bill duplicates rights already afforded to all people, regardless of housing status, in the U.S. Constitution.

The Chamber remains a strong believer in protecting private property rights; however, this bill and its sponsors attempt to address a very complex issue very late in the session and without engaging all stakeholders in the process. Therefore, it fails to achieve a balanced solution. Additionally, this proposal doesn’t consider the innovations in technology that, coupled with the current set of stringent rules for oil and gas development, allows for minimal impact to the environment.

This bill removes funding from CDOT by reducing HOV lane collections and will exacerbate the already critical transportation infrastructure funding crisis the state is experiencing.

This bill adds a new economic development tool to our state’s toolbox and will encourage important capital investment and job creation in our state.

The bill seeks to remedy key funding disparities that charter public schools face. Tax revenue collected from all taxpayers in a school district should benefit all public school students in that district and be distributed equally. It is important that all students have the opportunity for a quality education and are prepared to fill current and future jobs. Equitable funding is imperative to providing a quality education.

It reduces the burden on small businesses by giving them the opportunity to remedy minor violations before receiving fines without compromising health or safety. The bill also helps foster improved interactions between the department and small businesses, which will help reduce rule violations.

The Chamber, along with more than 100 diverse stakeholders as part of the Colorado Health Policy Coalition, has identified a set of principles that we urge Congress to consider when examining a replacement plan for the Affordable Care Act (ACA). We oppose a repeal of the ACA without a clear replacement because of the uncertainty and potential cost increases a repeal without replacement would create for businesses.

The Chamber supports business property tax exemptions that aim to further economic development. This bill reduces the tax burden on small business from business personal property tax and allows for more investment in equipment and efficiencies to increase production for Colorado businesses.

This bill assists rural communities with economic development in times of distress, which helps strengthen our state’s economy and mitigate job losses.

While the Chamber recognizes that the intent of this bill is to expand broadband capabilities to rural Colorado, repealing these government restrictions would not achieve that goal. Instead, it would have a detrimental effect on local communities and allow for discriminatory practices and unfair competition in the telecommunications industry.

The Chamber has consistently opposed any efforts to weaken our existing Labor Peace Act because its statutory framework provides the right balance to ensure a healthy relationship between business and labor in this state. Colorado’s Labor Peace Act has long provided a unique legal middle ground between right-to-work and union states.

Last year, the governor imposed a $100 million reduction in Hospital Provider Fee (HPF) collection to help balance the budget for Colorado, which resulted in the loss of an additional $100 million in matched funds for Colorado by the federal government. This year that number increased to $195 million, and it will continue to rise exponentially unless reclassification of the HPF is addressed.

The bill seeks to remedy key funding disparities that charter public schools face. Tax revenue collected from all taxpayers in a school district should benefit all public school students in that district and be distributed equally.

This proposal would remove a key provision of SB10-191, which created an evaluation system to develop greater accountability for educators and principals. The Chamber has long supported education as one of its pillars for a healthy and thriving economy.

While the Chamber is actively engaged in finding solutions to incentivize the building of attainable housing for our workforce, this bill would have a negative effect. An increase in filing and recording fees would result in higher costs to real estate professionals and the business community, which would be passed along to the consumer and essentially increase home prices further.

This bill is a mandate that interferes with private contracts and restricts carriers’ ability to create their own network as a strategy that can help businesses and their employees contain costs of health care.

This bill would impose significant uncertainty around energy storage applications, utilization and connectivity, particularly as it relates to connecting with the utility power grid. The unknown increased costs would be passed on to all consumers, including commercial customers, regardless of whether they are utilizing this technology.

The Chamber has long supported the development of the Colorado Academic Standards and the use of smart assessments in our schools. Colorado is now in the process of implementing the standards and assessments that the Chamber believes will equip our students with the skills needed to succeed in a 21st-century workplace. Repealing these standards and assessments will add significant unnecessary cost and delay implementation of the high standards we need for our students.

This bill remedies an otherwise punitive process by extending a protection given to taxpayers who make these tax payments in good faith, saving a business owner time and money by eliminating the need to go through this process twice.

Our economy depends on us working together to ensure that our youth are prepared to enter the talent pipeline and high-performing schools are a critical component of accomplishing this. We support a high-performing education system and this bill weakens our ability to hold school districts and schools accountable for their performance.

This bill imposes additional regulation on an industry already moving to integrate renewable energy resources into their distribution plans. This highly prescriptive regulation would result in higher costs and decreased security to all consumers.

This bill is a mandate that interferes with private contracts, and with the ability to directly visit a specialist, will increase health care costs.

By implementing Amendment 71, which the Chamber strongly supported, we’re better protected against outside interests who want to use our constitution as a testing ground for their policy ideas and give all Coloradans a voice in what’s on our ballot.

This bill addresses the three most critical components of construction defect litigation reform that will make a meaningful difference in increasing for-sale workforce housing while maintaining strong consumer protections. The Chamber has been working on these reforms with a broad coalition focused on energizing the construction of for sale condominiums throughout Colorado.

While this bill contains some meaningful changes to current law regarding construction defect litigation, the Chamber is concerned that, as written, it supersedes local municipality efforts to incorporate ADR as an option to avoid costly and time-consuming litigation. The Chamber supports a process that allows for a quick resolution of construction issues while providing sufficient consumer protections to all owners in a community.

This bill helps alleviate the burden new rules and regulations can impose on small businesses by providing a more precise analysis on the impact to small businesses before rules are put in place. The Chamber supports this increased outreach and consideration because small businesses typically don’t have the capacity to employ full-time regulatory staff members, and addressing rule changes can be especially challenging.

This bill would remove incentives to invest in alternative fuel vehicles, something the Chamber has been supportive of in past years. Although we support finding a long-term solution to addressing the funding needs of our roads and bridges, this bill doesn’t provide a significant source of revenue.

This bill keeps the post-judgement formula interest rate in line with economic trends that is currently in use in Colorado law. This bill removes an arbitrary interest rate put in place by the General Assembly in 1975 when inflation was high.

The Chamber recognizes that innovation is vital to improving transportation in Colorado. This legislation allows for the testing of new driverless technologies to help foster this innovation.

The bill represents years-long work on a compromise that will correctly classify the HPF – properly reflecting the growth of state revenue – keep our rural hospitals funded and allow the state to invest in transportation and education infrastructure.

Our economy depends on working together to ensure that our youth are prepared to enter the workforce. It’s important that we equip our students with 21st-century skills, prepare them for the future needs of businesses and for the jobs our economy depends on. This bill encourages student participation in career-focused programs, increasing the likelihood that they graduate from high school.

The Chamber supports this bill because it helps alleviate the burden that new rules and regulations can impose on small businesses. Small businesses typically don’t have the capacity to employ full-time regulatory staff members, making addressing rule changes especially challenging.

The Chamber sees the strong value of urban renewal projects as a tool for revitalizing, reenergizing and redeveloping our communities and for economic development. We support these necessary technical fixes to streamline the process and to help local governments and the development community achieve greater certainty when investing in these projects.

The economic development commission approves loans and grants from the economic development fund to public and private entities throughout the state to help existing businesses expand and new companies locate to Colorado. Extending the commission will foster economic development throughout the state, strengthen our economy and increase quality of life.

The Chamber’s focus is attracting and retaining top talent. We are committed to opposing legislation that hampers our ability to do so. If passed, this bill would allow business owners to arbitrarily refuse service simply for disagreeing with a message or event.

The Chamber sees the strong value of downtown development authorities and tax-increment financing as tools for revitalizing, reenergizing and redeveloping our communities. This bill imposes significant regulations on an already well-regulated process and could stifle development for areas of our state that could benefit from the additional investment.

Programs like these that help people enter the workforce with good paying jobs are closely tied to the success of the Chamber’s Denver Opportunity Youth Initiative. Our economy depends on working together to ensure that our youth are prepared to enter the talent pipeline. It’s important that we equip our students with 21st-century skills, prepare them for the future needs of businesses and for the jobs our economy depends on.

Although we support finding a long-term solution to addressing the needs of our roads and bridges, this bill isn’t meaningful unless we pair it with significant revenue. In order to fund this bill, the state would be forced to forego needed maintenance on existing roads, bridges and tunnels. Furthermore, this bill focuses only on highways and fails to include local governments to address mass transit and other mobility needs across the state.

While the Chamber is actively engaged in finding solutions to incentivize the building of attainable housing for our workforce, we oppose this bill because it would have a negative effect. An increase in real estate transfer taxes would result in higher real estate costs. When examining public funding to support building affordable housing, we believe every stakeholder ought to contribute toward the solution and no individual or group alone should bear the burden of solving this. Additionally, this proposal will add yet another formula to our state’s constitution, an issue that the Chamber adamantly opposes because of its inherent potential to create budgeting and funding problems in the future.