Dan Pilcher

CACI Senior Vice President

& Chief Operating Officer

E-Mail: dpilcher@COchamber.com

www.COchamber.com

Friday, August 12, 2011

Legislative Reapportionment Hearings Roll On

The hearings on the draft plans for redrawing state legislative district boundaries by the Colorado Reapportionment Commission rolled into the metro-Denver area this week and then moved north to Fort Collins yesterday.  Here’s the newspaper coverage of three of this week’s hearings:

Aurora

“Proposed map for resditricting irks Aurorans,” Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post, August 9^th.

Golden

“Jefferson County residents don’t want to share a state senator,” Lynn Bartels, The Denver Post, August 10^th.

Fort Collins

“House district lines debated at meeting in Fort Collins,” Robert Allen, The Fort Collins Coloradoan, August 12^th.

The Commission began its statewide hearings on August 4^th  in Salida and then stopped in Gunnison, Montrose and Grand Junction before coming back to the Front Range.  Tonight the Commission will be in Durango.  The Commission’s last hearing is  scheduled for Thursday, September 1^st in Broomfield. The hearing schedule can be found on the CACI Web site.

CACI strongly urges its members and local chambers of commerce to participate in the local meetings.  Legislative reapportionment is critical to the business community because it will greatly influence the relative balance of political power in the General Assembly for the next decade.

The Commission can revise the maps after the statewide hearings.  From September 5^th until September 30^th, the Commission will debate and then adopt the final House and Senate plans. 

The Commission must submit the final plans for approval to the Colorado Supreme Court by October 7^th.  December 14^th is the final day for the Commission to submit the approved plan to the Colorado Secretary of State.

The Commission has approved a preliminary Republican-drawn preliminary map for the House and a Democratic-drawn preliminary map for the Senate.   Since then, both maps have drawn sharp, partisan criticism, with Democrats aiming at the House plan and Republicans targeting at the Senate plan.

Both maps were approved on 5-to-6 votes.  The Commission is comprised of five Republicans and five Democrats.  The key vote came in each case from Mario Carrera, an unaffiliated voter from Parker.  Colorado Supreme Court Justice Michael Bender appointed Carrera, who is the vice president and general manager of Entravision Communications Corporation.

Because of population changes as revealed by the 2010 Census, the boundaries of the legislature’s 35 Senate seats and 65 House seats have to be redrawn.  In the House, the Republicans have a 33-to-32 majority; in the Senate, the Democrats have a 20-to-15 majority. 

CACI is monitoring the reapportionment effort and will periodically convey important information about the process to its members.  For more information on the legislative reapportionment process, contact Loren Furman, CACI Vice president of Governmental Affairs, at 303.866.9642 or via e-mail.

Reapportionment Commission Members to Present to CACI

At 10 a.m. on Wednesday, September 7^th, several members of the Colorado Reapportionment Commission will make a presentation about the legislative reapportionment process to CACI members at a meeting whose location will be announced later.  The meeting will only be open to CACI members.

The confirmed participants are:

·         Dolores Atencio, Democrat, an attorney with Garcia Calderon Ruis, LLP.

·         Gayle Berry, Republican, former House member from Grand Junction, lobbyist and CACI member.

·         Mario Nicolais, Republican, attorney, Hackstaff Law Group.

A fourth Commission member--Arnold Salazar, Democrat, Executive Director, Colorado Health Networks, Alamosa—has been invited to participate.

CACI believes strongly that legislative reapportionment is critical to the statewide business community because it will greatly affect the relative balance of legislative political power for the next ten years.  For more information on the legislative reapportionment process, contact Loren Furman, CACI Vice president of Governmental Affairs, at 303.866.9642 or via e-mail.

Meanwhile, Congressional Redistricting Court Case Awaits Maps from Democrats and Republicans

Because the legislature’s bipartisan Congressional Redistricting Committee was unable to come up with a plan during the session and have it approved by the legislature, this task has moved to the courts, with the trail scheduled for October.

How the Congressional boundaries will eventually be drawn is of great concern to three Republican incumbents and their announced Democratic challengers, who currently are state legislators:

·         Senate President Brandon Shaffer (D-Longmont) is challenging U.S. Representative Cory Gardner in the Fourth Congressional District;

·         Representative Joe Miklosi (D-Denver) is challenging U.S. Representative Mike Coffman; and

·         House Minority Leader Sal Pace (D-Pueblo) is challenging U.S. Representative Scott Tipton.

Today’s issue of The Denver Post carried an article, “For now, Colorado redistricting grids all over the map,” by statehouse reporter Lynn Bartels.

CACI Health-Care Policy Roundup: From Health Benefits Exchange Board  to San Antonio

NOTE:  The report below was written by Dan Anglin, CACI Governmental Affairs Representative, who can be reached at 303.866.9641 or by e-mail.

Health Exchange Board Chooses Interim Chair

Yesterday, the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange Board convened its third meeting  since  its creation.  The Board made a number of decisions, including:

·         Choosing Gretchen Hammer as the interim Chair to serve as Chair until the Board can develop by-laws;

·         To hire the services of the Colorado Attorney General’s office as counsel for the Board in order to develop its by-laws; and

·         To review the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services proposed rules to determine whether or not to submit comments to HHS regarding the rules.

Three candidates for the Board Chair presented their qualifications for the position:

·         Gretchen Hammer discussed her experience working as the Executive Director of the Colorado Coalition for the Medically Underserved, stating that her ability to bring together diverse groups and her experience serving as a chair on two non-profit boards is the right fit for the needs of the Board for leadership at this time.

·         Nathan Wilkes stated  that his time on the subcommittee to create the by-laws did not give him the time necessary to fulfill the duties of the Board Chair, and he removed his name from consideration.

·         Rob Ruiz-Moss of Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield stated that his experience as a former board chair for the Colorado Heart Foundation, his vision of a working business model for the successful launch of a working exchange in 2013, and his dedication to clarifying the role of both the Board and the Colorado General Assembly’s Legislation Oversight Committee is the right combination for the role of the Board Chair.

The Board voted seven-to-two to install Gretchen Hammer as interim Chair, clarifying that the term of the interim Board Chair would expire when the process to create by-laws for the Board is complete.  Board member Arnold Salazar offered an amendment to the motion of selecting the Chair that would prevent the interim Board Chair from being eligible for the position of Board Chair when the interim term expires.  That motion failed seven-to-two.

The Board discussed the work of the subcommittee to determine if the services of the Colorado Attorney General’s (AG) Office could be retained in order to guide the Board in discussions to create by-laws, and to provide the Board with Executive privilege in accordance with Colorado Sunshine laws and the Colorado Open Records Act.

The subcommittee met with the AG’s Office to discus concerns that Attorney General Jon Suthers’ involvement in the lawsuit regarding the constitutionality of the individual mandate to purchase insurance within the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act.  The interpretation of the AG is that, because the lawsuit focuses on only one aspect of the PPACA and not the measure that is related to state health exchanges, there is no conflict for the AG to represent the Board.  The Board voted unanimously to hire the AG at a rate of $60 per hour until the creation of the by-laws and setting a 60 day goal to find private counsel.

Joan Henneberry, Planning Director of the Exchange, provided a summary analysis of the draft HHS rules for the Board’s review.  She recommended that the Board review the rules for themselves and to allow for public comment on the proposed rules before the Board makes the decision on whether or not to comment.    

Additionally, the Board was presented with information regarding the creation of the Massachusetts Connector, the exchange for the individual market in that state, by the former Executive Director of the Connector.

The next meeting of the Board is scheduled for August 22^nd at 9:30 a.m.; the location of the meeting was not announced. 

Exchange Working Group Considers Integrating Human Services into the Program

On Tuesday, August 9^th, the Enrollment Verification and Eligibility (EVE) working group formed by Joan Henneberry, Planning Director for the Colorado Health Insurance Exchange, met to discuss the draft recommendation from the EVE to the Board regarding integrating services currently provided by the Federal/State partnership that are administered by the Counties, i.e. Food Stamps, Temporary Aid for Needy Families,  Low-Income Energy Assistance, Medicaid, and other low-income assistance programs.

The group was presented with a list of options on how to integrate these services into the Exchange and discussed whether any of the available options were appropriate for consideration by the Colorado Health Benefits Exchange Board.  This discussion is likely to be brought to the Board for consideration in upcoming meetings.

Anglin Presents Colorado Business Perspective on SB-200 to NCSL Task Force in San Antonio

Early this week, Dan Anglin traveled to San Antonio, Texas to make a presentation on SB-200 at a session of the Denver-based National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL) Annual Meeting.  Dan presented the employers’ perspective on the creation of state health-insurance exchanges to the NCSL Federal Health Reform Implementation Task Force.

Dan described the CACI Board of Directors’ determination to support the creation of an exchange in Colorado and the coalition of business organizations that were formed to advance SB 200.

Additionally, Dan provided legislators from other states with information about the concerns for employers now that Colorado has passed legislation to create an Exchange, such as incentives for participation in the SHOP.  He encouraged legislators from states that have not been able to pass an exchange bill to coordinate efforts with their business communities to create a business-friendly exchange that focuses on enhancing the health-insurance market.

Because only seven states have successfully passed legislation to create an exchange, many states are very interested in Colorado’s bi-partisan effort and the employer’s role in supporting SB-200.

Colorado Manufacturers Urged to Complete NAM Survey on Worker Skills

As part of its affiliation with The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM), CACI is assisting NAM in an important study that it is conducting with Deloitte examining the impact of the shortage of qualified workers with the skills that manufacturers need to compete successfully in the 21^st Century global economy.

Over the past several months, there have been many news media stories highlighting U.S. manufacturers’ struggle to hire workers with the skills needed to innovate and cultivate growth in their businesses.  This lack of highly skilled workers threatens both the future success of the U.S. industrial sector and the overall competitiveness of the U.S. economy.

For example, The Washington Post on February 20^th carried two articles, “The new-economy dilemma: Lots of jobs, but few workers fit,” and “Why does Fresno have thousands of job openings – and high unemployment?”

Every five years, NAM’s Manufacturing Institute and Deloitte publish The Skills Gap Report, one of the most quoted studies on the state of the advanced-manufacturing workforce.

This an opportunity for Colorado manufacturers to tell NAM how they are affected by the shortage of qualified workers with needed skills, how these shortages are trending and the unique business decisions being made by manufacturers to mitigate or address this issue.  This short survey will define the context for the advanced manufacturing workforce and present data that reflect the challenges manufacturers face.

To help NAM and The Manufacturing Institute with this study, please take ten minutes to complete the survey.

CACI thanks its member manufacturers in advance for contributing to this important research.  All respondents will be entered into a raffle to win an Apple iPad.  The results will be published in early October.