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.

The Chamber is supportive of aligning with federal guidelines and is discussing the impacts of this bill with members.

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.

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.

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.

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.