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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 8, 2008
CACI-Opposed Bill to
Require Employers to Use Federal “E-Verify”
Program for New Workers Dies in Senate Committee
On Wednesday, Donnah Moody, CACI Vice President
for Governmental Affairs, testified against
SB-83, which was sponsored by Senator Dave
Schultheis (R-Colorado Springs). The bill would
have repealed current requirements on employers
to examine the legal work status of new
employees and to retain records concerning this
examination. The bill died in the Senate State,
Veterans and Military Affairs Committee.
SB-83 would have required private-sector
employers to participate in the Federal
Electronic Verification Program, called
“E-Verify,” to determine the work-eligibility
status of new hires.
E-Verify, however, is the former Basic
Pilot/Employment Eligibility Verification
Program. It is an Internet-based system
operated by the U.S. Department of Homeland
Security in partnership with the U.S. Social
Security Administration that allows
participating employers to electronically verify
the employment eligibility of their newly hired
employees. For information on this Program,
visit:
http://www.ice.gov/partners/opaimage/
During the 2006 summer special legislative
session on illegal immigration and again during
the 2007 legislative session, however, CACI
objected to bills that would have forced
employers to use the Basic Pilot Program.
Moody said the Federal Basic Pilot Program is
neither accurate nor does it provide for timely
verification of immigration status. Requiring
Colorado’s 500,000 private-sector businesses to
participate or face significant fines places an
undue burden on Colorado’s employers, does not
accomplish the goal of eliminating illegal
workers, and therefore, does not make sense.
CACI recognizes that forged documents have
become very difficult to detect, especially for
employers who have no training in document
verification, along with the widespread problem
of identify theft and the subsequent illegal use
of legitimate identity documents, Moody said.
For example, although Swift & Company
participated voluntarily in the federal Basic
Pilot Program, the well-publicized raid on
December 12, 2006, by agents of the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) at
Swift’s Greeley plant found a number of
immigrant workers who lacked proper
documentation. ICE arrested 273 workers.
Moody said that CACI does not defend employers
who “knowingly” hire illegal immigrants.
Employers, however, shouldn’t be required to
serve as immigration police by the Colorado
State Government, she said. Doing so, Moody
said, also could hurt state and local economic
development efforts by discouraging businesses
from locating in Colorado or remaining in the
state. Employers would welcome a system for
verifying the immigration status of potential
employees that is fast, accurate and reliable,
Moody said.
An interesting aspect of this issue is that
Illinois enacted a law prohibiting
private-sector employers from using the Federal
Program. In response, the federal Department of
Homeland Security filed suit against Illinois,
seeking to overturn the law. Illinois has
agreed not to implement the law, pending the
outcome of the lawsuit. For more on the
Illinois-DHS battle, visit:
http://www.dhs.gov/xnews/releases/pr_1197585316378.shtm
House Sends Bill
Favoring Plaintiffs in Civil-Court Settlements
to the Governor
The House this morning concurred on the amended
HB-1020, a bill that favors plaintiffs in
settlement offers in civil-court cases, and will
send it along to Governor Bill Ritter for
consideration. The bill was sponsored by House
Majority Leader Alice Madden (D-Boulder) and
Senator Jennifer Veiga (D-Denver).
HB-1020 was a CACI “key-vote,” meaning the
recorded votes will be used to determine which
incumbent legislators will receive future CACI
endorsements and political contributions.
HB-1020 changes Colorado’s balanced litigation
system by allowing a plaintiff to reject a
settlement offer--even a reasonable one made
early in the process--then to recover all costs
incurred prior to the settlement offer, even if
the final judgment is less than the offer of
settlement. The bill encourages plaintiffs to
reject offers of settlement in favor of going to
court and having all pre-offer costs paid. With
the enactment of this bill, a plaintiff will be
able to bring a lawsuit, legally withhold
medical and financial records relevant to the
case, reject a settlement offer--even one that
is later deemed reasonable--then go to court and
win less than the offer of settlement and
have his or her pre-settlement costs paid by the
defendant. The bill incentivizes a defendant to
take his or her chances in court--resulting in
more trials, more crowded courts and a less
balanced litigation environment in Colorado.
CACI and the Colorado Civil Justice League,
which are mutually affiliated, opposed the bill
as soon as it was introduced. Other opponents
include the Northern Colorado Legislative
Alliance (which represents the Fort Collins,
Greeley and Loveland chambers of commerce, all
of which are CACI members) and the Colorado
Contractors Association, which also is a CACI
member.
CACI members with questions about this bill
should contact Donnah Moody, CACI Vice President
of Governmental Affairs, at 303.562.4551 or via
e-mail at
dmoody@COchamber.com.
House Committee
Amends HB-1091, the “Information Document
Request” Bill, following Successful Negotiations
between CACI, the Bill Sponsor and the Colorado
Department of Revenue
On Wednesday, the House Finance Committee passed
out an amended bill that was the result of
negotiations between CACI, the bill sponsor,
Representative Joel Judd (D-Denver), and the
Colorado Department of Revenue. The bill now
goes to the House Floor for Second Reading.
Although the CACI Tax Council opposed the bill
in its original form, it is now recommending
that CACI remain neutral on the bill.
The bill no longer includes the new and
burdensome Information Document Request process
as created by the original bill, and allows
companies with gross sales in excess of $500
million to continue to have the ability to seek
the decision of a court as to whether such
company was unreasonable in its response to a
request for documents issued by the Department
of Revenue. The bill now has a sunset date in
five years and also requires the Department to
report to the Legislature on the number of times
this statute has been used.
As introduced, the bill would have authorized
the Department to demand production of
information from a taxpayer by issuing an IDR in
order to determine tax liability. Failure by
the taxpayer to provide the information upon
receipt of the IDR would have precluded the
taxpayer from later introducing the information
in an administrative proceeding or court
proceeding.
CACI members who want more information on this
bill should contact Loren Rachel Furman, CACI
Director of Governmental Affairs, at
303.866.9642 or via e-mail at
lfurman@COchamber.com.
CACI Awaits Second
Version of Draft of Single-Sales Factor Bill
CACI is awaiting the second version of the draft
bill on the single-sales factor from the Ritter
Administration. CACI will make this version
available to its members as soon as it is
received by putting it on the CACI Web site.
The CACI Tax Council will review the second
version when it is received.
Last week, CACI sent the Governor’s Office a
letter that contained detailed recommendations
from a subcommittee of the CACI Tax Council to
improve the original bill draft.
Yesterday afternoon, CACI President Chuck Berry
and CACI Governmental Affairs Director Loren
Rachel Furman met with staff of the Governor’s
Office to review the progress in the re-drafting
of the bill. CACI members with questions about
this issue should contact Loren at 303.866.9642
or via e-mail at
lfurman@COchamber.com.
Bill to Prevent
Employers from Requiring that Workers Join the
Union, or Pay Union Dues, in an “All-Union”
Workplace, Dies in Senate Committee
SB-56, a so-called “closed shop” bill, would
have prevented employers from forcing workers to
join a union or pay dues or fees to the union in
an “all-union” workplace. The bill died Monday
in the Senate State, Veterans, & Military
Affairs Committee.
The bill stipulated that an employer could not
discriminate against a worker who chose not to
join the union or not to pay union dues or fees
in lieu of joining. The bill also made
violations of its provisions a misdemeanor with
up to nine months’ imprisonment or a fine of up
to $1,000, or both.
Quoted by the Senate Republican Web site, the
bill’s sponsor, Senator
Ted Harvey (R-Highlands Ranch), said,
“Most Coloradans would agree that union
membership should be voluntary and that no one
has the right to take money out of people’s
paychecks.” For more on the bill from the
perspective of the Senate Republican Office,
visit:
http://www.coloradosenatenews.com/content/view/711/26/
A number of states surrounding Colorado are
“right-to-work” states where unions are
prohibited from forcing workers to join unions
or pay union fees or dues as a requirement for
employment.
Bill to Increase
Fees for Water Dischargers Dies at Sponsor’s
Request.
A bill that proposed to increase fees by 300
percent for industrial dischargers and transfer
enforcement of pretreatment permits from the
U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to
the Colorado Department of Public Health and
Environment was introduced Monday and died today
at the sponsor’s request.
CACI sent out a Legislative Alert Thursday about
SB-141, sponsored by Senator Abel Tapia
(D-Pueblo) and Representative Randy Fischer
(D-Fort Collins). Senator Tapia hosted a
“stakeholder meeting” today prior to the bill’s
scheduled hearing in the Senate Health and Human
Services Committee.
A number of CACI members and other stakeholders
expressed concerns that the dramatic change did
not go through the established stakeholder
process and did not have a secure source of
funding other than fees. Concern also was
expressed that adequate resources should be
allocated to existing CDPHE functions before
adding new functions.
CACI Water Committee Chair Jerry Raisch
clarified that the CDPHE currently has partial
delegation for a portion of the permitting
process but subsequent enforcement is done by
the EPA. Senator Tapia made it clear that this
bill originated from a constituent’s concern and
not from the CDPHE. He agreed to kill the bill
and encouraged the stakeholder process to
consider this and other broader issues in the
coming year.
Business Personal
Property Tax Bill Introduced in the House
HB-1225 has been assigned to the House Finance
Committee. It is sponsored by Representative
Joe Rice (D-Littleton), who sponsored a similar
bill last year that passed the House but died in
the Senate.
The bill would increase incrementally the tax
exemption for business personal property from
the current $2,500 to $4,000 for tax year 2008,
$5,000 for tax years 2009 and 2010, and finally
$7,000 for tax years 2011 and 2012. After that,
the exemption would be increased on a “biennial
basis” for inflation.
The bill is supported by Governor Bill Ritter as
part of his economic development package
announced in late September:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1190709091430&pagename=GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout
The Governor’s Office says that the exemption
would benefit 30,400 businesses.
Because CACI has several concerns about the
bill, it is neutral. For more years than anyone
cares to remember, CACI has been strongly
opposed to the business personal property tax
and has consistently urged its elimination.
First, the exemption would not apply to any
businesses whose business personal property is
valued at any amount above the exemption. It is
thus very apparent that the bill only would
benefit very, very small businesses--and would
have no effect on most businesses, especially
the larger ones that pay the bulk of the tax.
A 1999 CACI study found that 200 companies paid
50 percent of the total of $525 million in
business personal property tax for 1998.
Second, it’s also clear that another beneficiary
of the bill will be the county assessors’
offices because they will no longer have to deal
with these tiny businesses. It’s not
unreasonable to assume that the cost to the
assessors of handling the paperwork probably
outweighs the revenue from these businesses.
One member of the CACI Tax Council has pointed
out that the effective tax rate on property
valued at $2,500 is probably 2-3 percent, which
means tax revenue of only $50 to $75.
Third, CACI is concerned that, should the bill
become law, supporters may claim to have
addressed the business personal property tax
problem, and the legislature, consequently,
might turn its attention from the issue in the
belief that it has addressed the problem.
Given that businesses pay somewhere in the
neighborhood of $600 million in business
personal property taxes annually, CACI does not
see the bill making even the slightest
perceptible dent in this long-standing problem.
Legislative staff has not yet generated a fiscal
note on the bill. One important reason why
legislators will be able to support this bill is
that there will be very little cost to the
state. The fiscal note for last year’s bill was
$44,000 for fiscal year 2007-2008, increasing to
more than $86,000 for fiscal year 2009-2010.
This “cost” is the amount of state money that
would “backfill” K-12 schools under the Colorado
School Finance Act because the increased
exemption would cost schools this small amount
of revenue from the business personal property
tax. If the 2008 bill has a substantial fiscal
note, then it would most likely die a quick
death in the House Finance Committee.
Last year, CACI urged lawmakers to think beyond
the 2007 bill and consider a three-step process
to deal with the business personal property tax:
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Exempt property that has totally depreciated
from the tax (such property is still
subject to the tax);
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Conform Colorado’s business personal
property tax schedule to that of the IRS;
and, most importantly,
-
Phase the tax out by reducing it by 5
percent a year for 20 years.
CACI Hires Jim
Tatten as New Contract Lobbyist for Health-Care
Issues
CACI has hired Jim Tatten as its contract
lobbyist on health-care issues for the 2008
legislative session. The Steering Committee of
the CACI HealthCare Council, both of which are
chaired by Ralph Pollock, a member of the CACI
Board of Directors, carried out the search for a
lobbyist. Tatten will report to CACI President
Chuck Berry, CACI Vice President of Governmental
Affairs Donnah Moody and the Steering Committee.
Before he became a contract lobbyist, Tatten was
the director of state advocacy for Catholic
Health Initiatives, the second largest Catholic
hospital system in the U.S. with responsibility
for 19 states. From 1996 to 2002, he served as
executive director and lobbyist for the Colorado
Catholic Conference. Before that, he worked for
eight years as the staff attorney for the
Nebraska Catholic Conference. Tatten holds a
B.A. from Creighton University and a J.D. from
Creighton University Law School.
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.
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