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Dan
Pilcher
CACI
Senior Vice President
& Chief
Operating Officer
Phone:
303.866.9600
E-Mail:
dpilcher@cochamber.com
Friday,
October 23, 2009
Don’t Procrastinate: Register Now for CACI’s 44th Annual Meeting
Luncheon on Tuesday, October 27th, Featuring Colorado
Governor Bill Ritter as Guest Speaker
The
Governor will address issues that are critical to the statewide
business community, which CACI represents as the state chamber
of commerce. CACI believes that the top issue facing Colorado
is economic recovery, including State efforts to sustain
existing jobs and lay the foundation for creating new jobs.
Economic recovery will go a long way to helping Colorado State
Government meet its budget challenges. When the economy is in
good shape and unemployment is low, the state income tax
produces more revenue for the state budget. When consumer
confidence is high (which it is not now), the state sales tax
produces more revenue for the State Government.
Although
many national rankings of state economies place Colorado’s very
high when compared to other states, CACI remains vigilant that
State Government should not harm Colorado’s business climate,
which would cause Colorado’s ranking to fall and hinder the
efforts of state and local economic development officials.
Specifically, State Government should, among other things, keep
the cost-of-doing-business reasonably low, not harm the existing
workers’ compensation system, protect the Colorado unemployment
insurance funds and maintain a pro-business state tax policy.
In particular, CACI opposes ideas to raise taxes on
business--especially manufacturers--by repealing long-standing
business tax incentives.
Moreover,
the 2010 session of the Colorado General Assembly is about two
and one-half months away, and the business community is certain
to face other challenges in such areas as mandates on employers,
health-care benefits, environmental regulation, and so forth.
The
Platinum sponsor of the Annual Meeting Luncheon, to be held 12
Noon—1:30 p.m. at the Denver Westin Tabor Center Hotel, is
EnCana, the oil and natural gas company:
http://www.encana.com/
Gold
sponsors are AngloGold Ashanti, N.A., Inc., and
MillerCoors.
Silver
sponsors are The Ball Corporation, Boeing, Centura Health,
CH2MHill, HealthONE, Lockheed Martin, Pinnacol Assurance,
Verizon Wireless, Wells Fargo and Xcel Energy.
CACI members
interested in attending the Luncheon should contact Denise
Reeves, CACI Vice President of Events and Programs, at
303.866.9622 or via e-mail at
dreeves@COchamber.com
Pinnacol Committee Approves Seven Bills During Last Meeting
In its
final meeting last Friday, the legislature’s interim Pinnacol
Committee approved seven draft bills from the longer list of
draft bills that had been put before the panel by the
legislative members of the Committee. Here are the seven draft
bills (some were amended) that cleared the Committee with their
“short titles”:
·
“Workers’ Compensation Accountability,” which was Bill 1
·
“Workers’ Comp Policyholder Prot Act 2010,” which was Bill 3
·
“Limit Surveillance Workers’ Comp Claims,” which was Bill 4
·
“Pinnacol assurance Board of Directors,” which was Bill 11
·
“Workers’ Comp Benefits Knowing Penalty,” which was Bill 12
·
“Workers’ Comp Conflicts of Interest,” which was Bill 13
·
“Workers’ Comp Claims Process Brochure,” which was Bill 14
The next
step for the bills is to be reviewed by the Legislative Council
on November 10, which will vote on whether or not to approve the
bills. The Legislative Council is comprised of the majority and
minority members of both chambers of the legislature. The
Council is chaired by Senate President Brandon Shaffer
(D-Longmont) and the Vice-Chair is House Speaker Terrance
Carroll (D-Denver). The Council has 12 members from the
majority party (Democrat) and six members from the minority
party (Republican). For more on the Council, click on:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1200536135403&pagename=CGA-LegislativeCouncil%2FCLCLayout&rendermode=preview
Here’s the
coverage of the final Pinnacol Committee hearing by The
Denver Post:
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_13581202
And
yesterday, The Denver Post editorialized about the
outcome of the Pinnacol Committee
http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_13612043
For more on
the Pinnacol Committee, click on the legislature’s Web page:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1242822336368&pagename=CGA-LegislativeCouncil%2FCLCLayout
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