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By
Dan Pilcher
CACI Senior Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
Phone: 303.866-9600
E-Mail:
dpilcher@COchamber.com
Friday, February 29, 2008
Despite CACI’s Veto
Request, Governor Ritter Signs HB-1020, which
Tilts the Playing Field to Plaintiffs in
Civil-Court Cases
On Tuesday, Governor Bill Ritter signed HB-1020,
which favors plaintiffs in settlement offers in
civil-court cases. CACI President Chuck Berry
had sent a letter asking him to veto HB-1020,
which was sponsored by House Majority Leader
Alice Madden (D-Boulder) and Senator Jennifer
Veiga (D-Denver).
CACI Receives New
Version of Single-Sales Factor Bill, Asks
Members to Review Draft
On Wednesday, CACI received the second version
of the draft single-sales factor bill from the
Ritter Administration. CACI is urging its
members who operate in Colorado and other states
to review this draft to determine its effect on
their state income tax liability and then inform
CACI. The draft can be viewed and downloaded
from the Headlines section of the CACI Web
site. This bill does not apply to companies
that only operate in Colorado.
Yesterday afternoon, a subcommittee of the CACI
Tax Council met for a preliminary review of the
new draft. Three weeks ago, CACI sent the
Governor’s Office a letter that contained
detailed recommendations from the Tax Council’s
subcommittee to improve the original bill draft.
CACI members with questions and comments about
this bill draft should contact Loren Rachel
Furman, CACI Director of Governmental Affairs,
at 303.866.9642 or via e-mail at
lfurman@COchamber.com
Senate Gives Initial
OK to Bill to Raise “Caps” on Medical
Malpractice Claims
Yesterday, the Senate gave Second Reading
approval to an amended SB-164, which would
loosen the existing damage limits for
medical-malpractice claims. CACI opposes the
bill, which is backed by the Colorado Trial
Lawyers Association and is sponsored by Senate
President Peter Groff (D-Denver).
A noteworthy aspect of the 18-to-15 Senate vote
is that one lone Democrat voted against SB-164:
Senator Bob Hagedorn (D-Aurora), one of the most
knowledgeable legislators on the issue of
health-care policy.
CACI is concerned that the effect of the bill
would be to:
-
Increase health-care costs by driving up
med-mal insurance premiums for physicians
(the Colorado Medical Society estimates that
premiums will increase 12 percent to 14
percent);
-
Induce some doctors to end their practices
or switch to less-risky medical specialties;
-
Cause some doctors practicing “defensive
medicine” by requiring expensive tests just
to protect themselves against the
possibility of lawsuits; and
-
Negatively affect rural areas where there
are fewer doctors if the bill causes some to
end their practices.
In the Senate debate, the bill’s opponents
argued that the bill would shrink access to
health care at a time when a major objective of
the health-care reform movement is to expand the
access to care.
The bill seeks to “align” the limit on damages
for non-economic loss or injury in a
medical-malpractice case under the 1988 Health
Care Availability Act to those for non-economic
loss or injury in general civil actions.
Economic losses in a med-mal case would be such
things as lost income and medical bills.
Non-economic losses are known as “pain and
suffering.” An award for a non-economic loss is
obviously more subjective than one for a
economic loss.
The 1988 law set the limit for total losses—both
non-economic and economic—at $1 million. A
judge can override the caps for economic losses,
however, if he or she concludes that the
plaintiff’s losses exceed $1 million. A judge,
however, currently can’t exceed the $300,000
non-economic loss ceiling, which was increased
from $250,000 effective July 1, 2003.
Two aspects of SB-164 concern CACI.
First, on or after July 1, 2008, the cap for
damages for non-economic loss or injury will
become that for “any civil action in which
damages for noneconomic loss or injury may be
awarded,” which is $250,000 unless the court
“finds justification by clear and convincing
evidence” that it should be more, in which case
the cap is $500,000.
In other words, the cap is effectively being
increased from $300,000 to $500,000, which is a
two-thirds increase.
Second, the bill would remove physical
impairment or disfigurement from the current
definition of non-economic loss or injury. The
bill states that a plaintiff could recover
economic damages “whether past or future”
because of physical impairment or
disfigurement. A plaintiff could thus recover
economic damages for physical impairment or
disfigurement up to the $1 million limit that
exists for loss or injury in general civil
actions, although a judge could increase the
award above that limit.
The Senate yesterday approved an amendment to
the bill offered by Senator Groff to prohibit
the Colorado Insurance Commissioner from
allowing med-mal insurance rates to increase
unless insurance companies could prove that
SB-164-- if it becomes law and is
implemented--caused the cost increase and if
their reserves are not sufficient when compared
to national averages. The amendment pushed out
the effective date of the bill to February 2,
2009, and Senator Groff was quoted by The
Denver Post today as saying that he wanted
to give the insurance companies, physicians and
lawyers time to work out a compromise on
med-mal. If they do not, then the law takes
effect.
Finally, both The Denver Post and The
Rocky Mountain News have editorialized
against the SB-164:
http://www.denverpost.com/editorials/ci_8383423
http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/feb/20/wrong-way-on-damages/
CACI Works to
Successfully Amend SB-122 the Union-Backed
“Wage-Transparency” Bill, which Clears Senate
As introduced, this bill
would have made it an unfair labor practice for
an employer to act
against a worker who discussed or disclosed his
or her wages or inquired about other employees’
wages. Organized labor pushed this bill, which
is sponsored by Senator Sue Windels (D-Arvada),
because the unions want to obtain wage
information about workers in a company as a
potential collective bargaining issue.
CACI worked to successfully amend SB-122,
however, to mirror the language of the Federal
National Labor Relations Act. The bill now
states that employers shall not punish employees
for disclosing their own wage information,
except as expressly permitted under the NLRA,
which protects mid-level and upper-level
management as well as those (auditors, human
resource people, information technology people,
etc.) who have access to wage information as a
function of their employment.
On Tuesday, the Senate gave final passage to
HB-122 on Third Reading and sent the bill to the
House, where it was assigned to the House
Business Affairs and Labor Committee. The House
sponsor is Representative Terrance Carroll
(D-Denver).
Although CACI opposed SB-122 as introduced, it
now is neutral on the bill, given the changes.
CACI Vice President for Governmental Affairs
Donnah Moody testified against the bill on Feb.
12th, when it was heard before the Senate
Business, Labor and Technology Committee.
House Sends Senate
Amended Bill Imposing Penalties on Tax Preparers
On Thursday, the House gave final approval to
HB-1138, which would allow the Colorado
Department of Revenue to penalize tax preparers
who understate the tax liabilities of their
clients “ . . . though a willful or reckless
disregard of applicable laws or rules . . . ”
The bill, sponsored by Representative Alice
Borodkin (D-Denver), was amended in committee
last week at her request to include language
requested by the CACI Tax Council to ensure that
workers who complete his or her employer’s tax
returns at the employer’s direction would not be
subject to the $500 penalty imposed by the
bill. The amendment also exempts Certified
Public Accountants based on current licensure
requirements stipulated by state law.
House Sends Amended
Breast-Feeding Bill to the Senate
On Thursday, the House gave final passage to
HB-1276, which creates a standard for employers
to use to provide break time to allow a worker
to express her breast milk for her nursing child
and for an employer to make “reasonable efforts”
to provide the mother with a private workplace
location where she can express her milk. The
bill states that an employer who makes a
reasonable effort to accommodate a nursing
worker will be in compliance with the workplace
accommodation standards. CACI had worked with
the bill’s sponsor, Representative Andy Kerr
(D-Denver) to change the bill to accommodate
CACI’s concerns that it not be a mandate on
businesses.
Status Report on
Other Bills . . .
HB-1091, which would have allowed
Colorado Department of Revenue to demand
production of information from a taxpayer in
order to determine tax liability by issuing an
“information document request” (IDR), awaits
action by the Senate Finance Committee. The
introduced bill stated that failure by the
taxpayer to produce or provide access to the
information request would preclude the taxpayer
from introducing the information in any
subsequent administrative or court proceedings
or audits. Although CACI opposed as introduced,
CACI successfully worked with the House sponsor
to significantly narrow language.
HB-1001 is one of Governor Bill Ritter’s
economic development bills. It would encourage
bioscience research grants and advancements with
initial funding coming from limited gaming
funds. CACI supports the bill. On Thursday,
the House passed it on Third Reading and sent it
to the Senate.
HB-1183, supported by CACI, loosens the
standards of eligibility for the job-creation
tax credit created in 2007 by HB-1017 by
reducing the time for the number of new jobs
created to five new jobs in six months in rural
areas and ten new jobs in six months for urban
areas. A “strike-below” approved in House
Business Affairs and Labor Committee would allow
the Colorado Economic Development Commission to
establish the criteria by which the incentives
are allocated. The bill awaits Senate Second
Reading.
For More Information
on Legislation . . .
CACI members with questions about legislation
that CACI opposes or supports should contact
Chuck Berry, CACI President, at 303.866.9652
or e-mail him at
cberry@COchamber.com
Questions pertaining to health-care bills should
be directed to Ralph Pollock, Chair of
the CACI HealthCare Council, at 303.866.9657 or
via e-mail at
ralph@apaccess.com |
