State Legislation

Our competitive advantage is our talented workforce, but if we don’t get more of our kids to and through college, we could jeopardize that advantage. This bill increases the value of work-based learning for students (something the Chamber is an advocate for), because those apprenticeships and internships will be tied to post-secondary credit, transferable to credentials.

This bill provides targeted support in rural, distressed communities for job creation and business attraction. The Chamber supported the development of this program and is supportive of this legislative change to add economic development organizations as eligible entities for funding and amends restrictions on competition. It continues to support overall economic development for the state and increases the likelihood of approval for companies in rural areas.

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

This bill comes out of the Sales and Use Tax Simplification Task Force and protects businesses that use the state’s geographic information system database to calculate their sales and use tax rates.

This bill returns Colorado to the 20-year limit, which many businesses are already accustomed to. Therefore, we are neutral on the bill.

This bill would substantially increase costs for businesses because they would need to meter every room to separate those that are directly tied to manufacturing and those that are not, making it cost prohibitive for many.

The Chamber is committed to helping Colorado companies grow and thrive, attract new businesses and build a strong and healthy workforce. We advocate for policy that makes Colorado the best place to do business and oppose legislation that hinders our ability to do so. If passed, this bill will set Colorado back several decades and allow for rampant discrimination, sending a message that conflicts with the inclusive and collaborative culture the business community has worked hard to build and maintain here in Colorado. This bill would put our ability to attract top companies and workers at risk.

This would make it easier for businesses of all sizes to be aware of rulemaking proceedings that impact them.

The Chamber is committed to creating safe and inclusive workplaces for our employees and this bill supports those efforts.

Access to quality childcare is important to our entire workforce, allowing more parents to engage in the economy; addressing this educator shortage by creating relevant experiences to fill these roles; and laying a foundation of knowledge for our future workforce. Every dollar spent on early childhood education services contributes $2.25 to the state’s economy by enabling parents of young children to work.

This bill requires taxpayers to pay for an expensive study of a concept that we do not support. The concept allows communities to choose an outside utility to provide services but use the existing utility’s infrastructure without paying to support that infrastructure. It raises costs for those who remain on the existing system – businesses and consumers alike – and does nothing to decrease carbon emissions or improve the environment.

The Chamber maintains a firm position that local fracking bans are unconstitutional. This bill 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 supports employers’ rights to maintain a drug-free workplace as upheld by the Colorado Supreme Court. This legislation undermines an employer’s ability to create that safe environment and, for certain employers, could cause them to violate federal law.

Investment in professional and educational development for our workforce not only creates a competitive edge for companies to recruit and retain employees but also ensures our workforce can meet the demands and access the knowledge and training necessary to fill the jobs vital to our economic success.

While we fully support broadband access for our rural and unserved communities, this bill creates a more subjective process that potentially politicizes how broadband grants are awarded and risks that fewer unserved areas receive access.

While we support efforts to increase transparency, this bill risks exposing proprietary information that has no direct tie to consumer benefit. The bill also provides no oversight on the Commissioner’s role as arbiter to decide what drug information to release.

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

This bill encourages businesses to create and invest in a family and medical leave insurance program for their employees and incentivizes employees to contribute to their own accounts. It also rewards companies that are already providing such programs to their employees. The Chamber supports the flexibility that this legislation gives to businesses while also encouraging them to provide a program of this kind to their employees.

This bill risks consumer cybersecurity by allowing a third-party to enter private data networks to preform repairs. In addition, it puts manufacturers in a challenging position to guarantee work of a third party that is out of their control.

This bill circumvents the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) by increasing taxes on small business and using the funds to offset a decrease in taxes for a separate population. The Chamber is a strong supporter of TABOR’s requirement that voters should decide all tax increases.

We’re committed to supporting our veterans as they transition into the civilian workforce. We know our veterans have the kind of transferable knowledge, leadership skills and work ethic that make them valuable employees. With more than 400,000 vets in Colorado, there’s a huge opportunity for businesses to engage this talented workforce.

This legislation causes great concern for public safety and health, and not just for those of us who work in Colorado, but for those who are experiencing homelessness as well. It does not address the underlying issues causing homelessness and comes significantly short in providing the resources necessary to help communities struggling with homelessness. In fact, it creates barriers for service providers and outreach workers to approach someone who is homeless and provide support and much-needed services. In addition, by creating a right to legal action, the bill will subject the state and local governments to frivolous and costly lawsuits.

This bill assumes outcomes and directs the AQCC to set emissions standards stricter than those of the EPA for the four air toxics outlined in the bill rather than relying on long-standing, evidence-based and scientifically valid means for establishing regulations. The Chamber supports the thoughtful, evidence-based approach we take with the Colorado Department of Public Health & Environment today.

The Chamber was supportive of the initial legislation that created this program, HB17-1356, as it created a new economic development tool that would encourage important capital investment and job creation in our state. It continues to support overall economic development for our state and extending this program.

By incentivizing the hiring of employees that telecommute, this bill encourages businesses to expand their workforce across our state. Additionally, it could reduce traffic congestion by having more employees work from home.

We have underfunded transportation for decades, and it’s costing us $7.1 billion each year because of traffic congestion delays, damage to vehicles, accidents and lost gas efficiency – and those costs will only continue to increase if we don’t fund transportation appropriately. This bill will further reduce funding for transportation and encourage single occupant driving by exempting certain vehicles from paying toll lane fees regardless of the number of passengers in the vehicle. This will exacerbate the underfunding and congestion problems we face rather than helping to fix them.

Permitting this transfer of credentials would allow skilled workers to enter Colorado’s workforce more quickly. By shortening the timeline for these workers to be credentialed, the state will foster economic development, attract skilled workers and strengthen our economy. This will also support the spouses of our military members in finding employment as they move to our state.

This bill helps build the workforce pipeline for innovative industries by supporting and incentivizing companies to provide work-based experience via internships.

This bill greatly expands employer liability not only when an employee acts negligently in the course of regular business but also for the actions of independent contractors for whom the employer typically has little to no control.

This proposal is a one-size-fits-all approach that gives sweeping authority to an appointed individual, shifts costs to the employer-based coverage market, adds inefficiencies and puts us at risk for unintended consequences that harm Coloradans on subsidies and increases rates in parts of the state. Although language in the bill intends to prevent cost shifting, there is no assurance that premiums will not have to be adjusted in the fully insured market to make up for the decreased reimbursement rates from the Colorado Option. While the Chamber supports a market-based effort that increases access to health care, drives down costs for all, and is flexible for the wide range of communities, workers and businesses that make up our state, that simply isn’t what is being proposed.

Businesses in Colorado have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and are struggling to stay afloat and keep workers on payroll. The federal CARES Act was necessary to help provide critical resources to businesses, but many were not able to access these loans and many of those that did are now running out of funds. This bill will create a loan program that will support small businesses and aid in the state’s recovery.

This bill creates a new, expanded definition for worker for the purposes of whistleblower protection and includes independent contractors in certain situations. Different definitions for these common terms in different pieces of legislation cause confusion for employers and employees alike. The bill also allows a person to bring a civil action against an employer after exhausting administrative remedies but does not define those remedies, allowing for a multitude of interpretations. Lastly, employers are effectively held liable for conflicting federal, state and local health guidelines.

This bill eliminates much-needed tax relief for Colorado employers of every size, including sole proprietors. It complicates Colorado’s tax laws, creates more uncertainty and drives up the cost of doing business in Colorado, slowing the economic recovery we are working so hard to achieve. This bill creates even more uncertainty for employers and hurts their confidence, putting more Coloradans’ jobs at risk, slowing economic recovery, hurting our small businesses and putting Colorado at a major disadvantage compared to other states.

Allowing local governments to extend property tax relief to businesses, should they decide to do so in their communities, will allow businesses to better manage their available cash for a few months to survive these unprecedented times. This much-needed flexibility will help our businesses to stay operational and continue to keep Coloradans employed, which should be a focus for all of us to help with our state’s economic recovery.

This bill could result in a patchwork of local regulations, which increases administrative burden, makes compliance more challenging and raises costs for businesses and consumers.

The Chamber is supportive of efforts to reduce emission of greenhouse gases. This bill creates a pathway for investor-owned utilities to test emerging energy technologies which, if successful, would allow them to achieve aggressive carbon emission reduction goals.

This bill will result in increased unnecessary and costly lawsuits making it much more expensive for businesses to operate in Colorado and dampening economic development efforts currently underway to attract more good paying jobs to this state. It also incentivizes bringing class actions for smaller classes by making attorney fees available, as opposed to only being available in individual claims, as they are currently.

This bill would hinder a business’s ability to create a safe and healthy work environment and potentially cause non-compliance when certain standards, for example OSHA, direct them to require vaccinations for their employees. The Chamber’s primary interest is lowering the cost of health care, and preventive care, like immunizations, is a documented way to do that.

This bill makes binding arbitration clauses in consumer and employment contracts very difficult to enforce, which could drive up unnecessary litigation, increase costs for businesses and consumers and undermine the progress the Chamber helped make on construction defects reform.

We have underfunded transportation for decades, and it’s costing us $7.1 billion each year because of traffic congestion delays, damage to vehicles, accidents and lost gas efficiency – and those costs will only continue to increase if this issue goes unaddressed. Because transportation system is primarily funded through gas tax, it cannot account for electric motor vehicles and their impact. While we prefer a system where usage is tied directly to fees, we recognize that there are challenges in doing so at this time and support efforts to ensure all drivers are contributing to maintaining the roads they use.

Colorado is among the states with the most complicated sales and use tax systems in the country, with over 550 jurisdictions that levy sales taxes. This bill eases the burden for small businesses while minimizing the impact on jurisdictions.

This bill will allow for legislators to more fully understand financial implications of legislation on health care plans, allowing them to make more informed decisions when voting on and sponsoring legislation.

This bill will allow for legislators to more fully understand impacts of legislation on Colorado’s businesses, allowing them to make more informed decisions when voting on and sponsoring legislation.

This bill undermines the progress the Chamber helped make on construction defects reform by increasing the likelihood of litigation, driving up building costs and making for-sale housing, a critical component in our housing market, more expensive.

This program essentially taxes water customers twice, once for the water services they already receive through water rates and a second time to fund the enterprise. Furthermore, the enterprise makes water customers pay for projects in other communities from which they see little to no benefit themselves.

This bill circumvents the Taxpayer Bill of Rights (TABOR) by increasing severance taxes and using the surplus from those taxes to fund the Community Solar Garden Tax Exemption. The Chamber remains a strong supporter of TABOR and will support refunds when the formula accurately dictates. Additionally, severance tax revenues should be spent in the communities where they are raised.

Increased financial literacy contributes to the economic stability of individuals and our community, so the Chamber is supportive of efforts to increase financial literacy in our education system.

The Chamber supported the initial legislation to refer these measures to the ballot, as well as Fair Maps Colorado. Designating a new commission that is balanced, equally comprised and representative of all Coloradans will avoid gerrymandering and ensure a more transparent and competitive redistricting and reapportionment process for Colorado.

The Chamber recognizes that the economic growth of our state depends in part on our aging population having sufficient income in retirement. However, the Chamber is opposed to a mandate that will create an additional burden on businesses, adding costs to businesses at a time when they need to focus on retaining employees and rebuilding. Products offered in the individual market offer more flexibility than this one-size-fits-all approach. Additionally, new federal policies were recently passed that expand access to retirement savings plans. We should allow these changes to take effect before making further changes and imposing new mandates on retirement savings.

While the Chamber supports providing paid sick leave to employees, we must ensure that employers who are today providing these types of benefits are recognized as meeting the requirements in this bill, even if they have different terms of use. As it is currently written, the bill would also interfere with collective bargaining agreements, which are thoroughly negotiated private contracts between businesses and union representatives. The current language in the bill would force employers and employees in collective bargaining agreements to apply different sick leave terms and conditions in Colorado and result in the need to renegotiate national agreements years in the making.

By changing the definition of independent contractor, this bill would create conflicting definitions in various parts of statute, causing confusion for employers and independent contractors alike.

Rather than addressing the root cause of health insurance premium growth, this bill simply shifts costs from the individual market to the fully insured market, a market comprised of small and medium-sized businesses. Carriers will be forced to pass on the new fee to employers in the form of premium increases, which businesses cannot afford during this challenging time. Rather than just picking up the state’s share of reinsurance funding, this bill also aims to create additional revenue for a variety of other programs and expansion on the backs of the businesses. While we understand many Coloradans are challenged to pay for health insurance premiums today, increasing the affordability for one group by decreasing affordability for another is not the way to solve this challenge. Many small and medium-sized Colorado businesses were already struggling to provide health insurance benefits for their employees before the public health crisis and this bill only exacerbates those challenges for employers and their employees.

The current proposed legislation would essentially eliminate the requirement that a worker prove his or her injury arose out of and in the course of employment as is required for other workers compensation claims. There is nothing that precludes an employee from filing a workers’ compensation claim if they can provide they contracted COVID-19 at work. Unlike other presumptions, which are typically limited to a small subset of workers, this presumption is expansive and includes many employees who do not regularly have sustained physical contact with individuals confirmed to have COVID-19. The presumption of coverage under the workers' compensation act will result in raising costs for Colorado businesses when they can least afford it. Additionally, the burden of proof that an employer provides clear and convincing evidence that COVID-19 was contracted outside the workplace is nearly impossible to satisfy given the rate of community transmission.

Businesses in Colorado have been hit hard by the COVID-19 pandemic and are struggling to stay afloat and keep workers on payroll. The federal CARES Act was necessary to help provide critical resources to businesses, but many were not able to access these loans and many of those that did are now running out of funds. This bill will create a grant program that will support our smallest businesses and aid in the state’s recovery.

Our board has taken a position that formulas in our constitution make it exceedingly difficult to prioritize our state’s investments or respond to changes in economic conditions. The Chamber supports the removal of all formulas in our state’s constitution, including the Gallagher Amendment.