|
Dan Pilcher
CACI Senior Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
Phone: 303.866.9600
E-Mail:
dpilcher@COchamber.com
Friday, January 9, 2009
2009 Legislative
Session Begins, Governor Ritter Delivers “State
of the State Address”
Note: The following section was written
by Jenn Penn, BIPAC Mountain Regional Vice
President, staffs the CACI Colorado Prosperity
Project (see below for more on the Project).
The First Regular Session of the Sixty-Seventh
Colorado General Assembly started Wednesday with
the major issue being a significant budget
shortfall of $604 million, which may result in
severe cuts in state spending. Legislators are
hoping to pass plans to fix state roads and
bridges, boost health-care coverage for the
uninsured and address other critical issues
facing the state. The Legislature will
concentrate on the budget, transportation,
health care, energy and education. Some salient
facts about the session:
·
The session runs for 120 days, starting January
7 and ending no later than May 6th;
·
There are 35 members of the Senate and 65
members of the House of Representatives;
·
The Senate consists of 14 Republicans and 21
Democrats; and
·
The House of Representatives consists of 28
Republicans and 37 Democrats.
Colorado Governor Bill Ritter yesterday
delivered his third State of the State address
to a joint session of the House and Senate in
the House Chamber. Governor Ritter addressed
the challenges facing the state of Colorado and
outlined his priorities for the upcoming year.
He called for a bipartisanship effort to focus
on protecting businesses, creating jobs and
managing the state budget.
The Governor plans to outline his plans to
balance the state budget to the Joint Budget
Committee (JBC) including his recommended budget
cuts of nearly $800 million on January 15th.
The budget cuts will be through a combination of
program changes, cash-fund transfers and tapping
state reserves.
Governor Ritter outlined two economic
development bills, which CACI supports, to
protect businesses, create jobs and strengthen
the economy.
·
HB-1001, which will establish a tax credit incentive for companies
that create more than 20 new jobs and which is
discussed in more detail below.
·
Legislation to revive the Colorado Credit Reserve Program, which
will help thousands of businesses obtain access
to credit and capital during the economic
downturn.
The Governor’s transportation plan proposes a
three-stage, omnibus transportation bill called
“Funding Advancements for Surface Transportation
and Economic Recovery” (FASTER). The bill would
look at fees and bonding to fix old bridges and
roadways, public-private financing partnerships
and creating a long-term, sustainable funding
formula:
·
Stage 1: Putting immediate
safety and maintenance needs first by looking at
fees and bonding to fix old bridges and old
roadways.
·
Stage 2: Exploring creative
finance options such as public-private
partnerships.
·
Stage 3: Creating a
long-term sustainable funding formula, because
"we can't build a modern, safe and efficient
21st century transportation system with a 20th
century funding model," Gov. Ritter said.
Governor Ritter’s education plan includes a
statewide concurrent enrollment plan for high
school students that would allow students to
take college classes while still in high school.
Regarding health care, the Governor proposes a
plan that would charge hospitals fees to
generate revenue to use in drawing down hundreds
of millions of dollars in federal matching
funds. The combined funds would allow the state
to provide health-care coverage to more than
100,000 uninsured Coloradans.
The Governor said the achievements of the past
have put Colorado on a more solid financial
footing than many other states and sound
decisions during this legislative session and
having a stronger federal partner will better
position Colorado for a quicker economic
rebound.
Parental-Leave Bill
Problematic for Businesses
HB-1057 would require companies that employ more
than 20 workers to provide up to six hours of
unpaid leave per month and up to 40 hours in an
academic year to workers who want to attend
parent –teacher conferences or other academic
activities related to the educational
achievement of the employee’s child.
The bill is scheduled for its first hearing when
the House Education Committee meets at 1:30 p.m.
on Thursday, January 22nd.
CACI is studying the bill and seeking input from
its members on how they think the bill, if it
becomes law, would affect them. Please review
this bill as quickly as possible and provide us
with your comments. CACI will testify on the
bill. Please send your comments via e-mail to
Loren Furman, CACI Vice President of
Governmental Affairs, at:
lfurman@COchamber.com
Although the bill is sponsored in the House by
Representative Andy Kerr (D-Lakewood), it also
has other powerful supporters: House Speaker
Terrance Carroll (D-Denver) and Senate President
Peter Groff (D-Denver). When Senator Groff
sponsored similar bills in 2006 and 2007, CACI
successfully opposed them.
In his remarks to the Senate Wednesday, Senator
Groff said, “ . . . 52 percent of parents
can’t attend school related events because they
aren’t granted sensible leave.”
In his speech, Speaker Carroll said, “ . . .
student engagement requires parental
involvement. When parents are involved, when
they track their child’s performance, and keep
close contact with their teachers, their child
is more likely to succeed. Unfortunately, many
parents simply can’t get enough time away from
their job to help their children become more
effective learners. I hope this year to pass
legislation from Rep. Andy Kerr that allows
parents to take a few hours, unpaid, to step
away from work to attend meetings at school
without worrying about losing their jobs.”
The worker cannot take leave in time blocks
greater than three hours and has to provide, in
advance, written verification from the school of
the activity. The worker has to give at least
three days advance notice to the employer,
except in the case of an emergency. Workers are
directed to make reasonable efforts to schedule
meetings with the school outside of regular work
hours. The bill allows the worker to substitute
paid vacation or personal leave for the unpaid
leave. Finally, the bill says that an employer
that provides comparable leave to its workers
has complied with the act and is not required to
provide any additional leave. You can access
the bill by clicking on this link . . .
http://www.leg.state.co.us/Clics/CLICS2009A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/72A677413BD8FA8
F87257537001A374C?Open&file=1057_01.pdf
. . . . or by visiting the Headlines Section of
the CACI Web site and downloading a pdf of the
bill.
Columnist Susan Greene of The Denver Post
wrote an article in favor of the bill that
appeared in the Wednesday edition:
http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_11401008
Tax-Credit Incentive
Bill Tops the Governor Ritter’s Economic
Development Effort
CACI in December indicated to Governor Bill
Ritter’s staff that it would support the
proposal, which was introduced Wednesday as
HB-1001, the first bill of the session for the
House, which is an indication of the importance
placed on the bill by the House leadership and
the Governor’s Administration.
The bill is sponsored by Representative Joe Rice
(D-Littleton), who chairs the House Business
Affairs and Labor Committee. The Senate sponsor
is freshman Senator Rollie Health (D-Boulder),
who once served on the CACI Board of Directors.
In his “State of the State Address” to a joint
session of the House and Senate yesterday, the
Governor said, “By enacting House Bill 1001, the
job creation tax credit I announced last month,
we can level the playing field with other states
when it comes to attracting new companies and
new jobs.”
“Colorado has never been able to compete against
other states in terms of incentives,” the
Governor said, “ This job creation tax credit
won’t just be a new tool in the tool box—it will
be a whole new toolbox.” He said that
just proposing the incentive has put Colorado
into the national competition for another
wind-manufacturing plant.
The bill is intended to provide an incentive for
businesses to create jobs. To participate in
the program, a business would have to meet
certain criteria and apply to the Colorado
Economic Development Commission. The firm would
be eligible for a corporate income-tax credit of
up to half percent of its annual FICA taxes on
new workers. The tax credit would be calculated
on a year-to-year basis for five years according
to the number of FTEs on the payroll of the
business at the end of the year.
In order for the tax credit to be granted, a
company has to prove that if it wasn’t for this
program that the company would not move or
expand its operations in Colorado.
For the press release from the Governor’s Office
last month announcing this legislation, plus
related economic-development bills, visit:
http://www.colorado.gov/cs/Satellite?c=Page&cid=1229603081432&pagename=
GovRitter%2FGOVRLayout
CACI’s Lobbying Team
Begins Analyzing Bills
CACI’s lobbying team is busy assessing the
introduced bills for their potential impact on
the business community and the state’s economy.
These bills, which will be reported on in more
detail in upcoming issues of The Capitol
Report, cover workers’ compensation
insurance, unemployment insurance,
transportation, trucking, health-care benefits
and the business personal property tax, among
other issues.
CACI Council Meetings
The CACI Governmental Affairs Council
meets at 12 Noon on Tuesday, January 13th.
The Energy and Environment Council meets
at 12 Noon on Wednesday, January 14th.
On Thursday, January 15th, at 12 Noon , Senator
Betty Boyd (D-Lakewood), chair of the Senate
Health and Human Services Committee, and
Representative Ellen Roberts (R-Durango), a
member of the House Health and Human Services
Committee, will discuss health-care issues and
bills with members of the CACI HealthCare
Council.
Rep. Joel Judd (D-Denver, Chair of the important
House Finance Committee, will be the featured
guest speaker at the CACI Tax Council
meeting at 12 Noon, Friday, February 6th.
NOTE: All meetings will be held in the
Conference Room at the CACI Office. Information
about all Council meetings and agendas can be
accessed on the CACI Web site.
CACI Urges Colorado’s
Delegation in the U.S. House of Representatives
to Defeat the union-advocated “Employee Free
Choice Act.”
In a letter sent Monday to the nine federal
legislators who represent Colorado in the U.S.
Senate and the U.S. House of Representatives,
CACI President Chuck Berry urged them to “. . .
save the secret ballot component of any union
organizing election. The secret ballot is
threatened by the so-called Employee Free Choice
Act or ‘card check’ legislation that the 111th
Congress will consider in 2009.” Here is the
rest of the text of Berry’s letter:
Simply put, this bill
is anti-worker and would be a dramatic, negative
change to the American workplace depriving
workers of the fundamental American right of a
secret ballot election to determine union
representation.
The erroneously named
Employee Free Choice Act would replace the
privacy of election booths with the very public
“card check recognition” process. Employees
would be forced to make their choice for or
against a union in front of coworkers or union
organizers. The “card check” process invites
intimidation and coercion in the organizing
process by eliminating the privacy and anonymity
that are cornerstones of America’s free election
process and granted to employees under the
National Labor Relations Act (NLRA).
Furthermore, the “card
check” legislation contains a provision that
mandates compulsory, binding arbitration on the
employer and the employees as part of the
collective bargaining process. This misguided
language would have a third party - a government
official - making labor contract decisions that
are binding upon both parties. This would mean
that the business owner would have no real voice
in his own business nor would the now unionized
employees be provided with the opportunity to
vote on their new contract.
CACI urges you to
oppose the Employee Free Choice Act when it
comes to the floor of the House/Senate. Secret
ballot elections are the foundation of our
democratic society and America’s workers deserve
nothing less.
For more information on the EFCA and business
concerns with the bill, visit the Headlines
section of the CACI Web site.
CACI Grassroots
Advocacy Program Is a Key Element of CACI’s
Lobbying Strategy
The CACI Grassroots Advocacy Program is designed
to improve and protect the state’s business
climate by mobilizing statewide the power of
business leaders to influence decisions by state
and federal government officials. CACI works to
identify companies and their executives who are
willing to contact their legislators through
e-mail, letters or phone calls to provide
information on the likely effect of proposed
legislation on their businesses. The CACI
Grassroots tools help you to easily identify and
contact your state and federal legislators. We
will provide you with background information and
“talking points” to use in your communications.
The Grassroots part of the CACI Web site will
help keep you informed on state and federal
issues that affect your company and your
community.
http://www.cochamber.com/takeaction_coloradoprosperityproject.asp
Greenwood Village
Chamber of Commerce Wins CACI Challenge to
Recruit Members for CACI’s Grassroots Advocacy
Program
Congratulations to the Greenwood Village Chamber
of Commerce and its Executive Director, Mark
Crowley, for winning the “CACI Chamber
Challenge”. Forty-two local Chambers, which
are CACI members, were eligible to win. The
challenge was to sign up the most members for
CACI Grassroots Advocacy Program through the
CACI website in a two-week period prior to the
beginning of the legislative session. If you
have not yet signed up, visit:
http://www.vocusgr.com/gr/WebPublish/Controller.aspx?SiteName=COAC&Definition=IndividualEdit
Local Chambers of
Commerce Play Critical Role in CACI’s Lobbying
Successes
Local chambers of commerce play a vital role in
CACI’s mission of championing a healthy business
climate at the Colorado State Capitol and with
the U.S. Congress. As mentioned, 42 local
chambers of commerce across Colorado are
dues-paying members of CACI. A list of these
chambers, with links to their Web sites, can be
found on the CACI Web site. CACI encourages its
members to belong to the appropriate local
chambers.
On Friday morning, January 16th, CACI President
Chuck Berry will participate in a conference
call with local chamber executives to discuss
business issues and bills that confront the
legislature. This conference call will take
place every other Friday after that during the
session.
CACI also houses and supports the Colorado
Chamber of Commerce Executives (CCCE), a
statewide association of local chamber
executives, which provides CACI with policy
input. A CCCE representative serves on the CACI
Board of Directors. This representative is
Amy Sherman, President and CEO of the West
Chamber Serving Jefferson County.
CACI Colorado
Prosperity Project Offers Employers an Avenue to
Communicate with Their Workers on Issues,
Candidates and Elections
The CACI Colorado Prosperity Project (CP2) is a
collaborative effort by CACI and the Business
and Industry PAC, known as BIPAC:
www.bipac.org
CP2 is intended to provide employers with the
tools to communicate with their workers about
state and federal candidates, issues and
elections in a non-partisan, pro-business way.
Statistics show that employees consider their
employers trustworthy sources of information
about business issues. Visit the CP2 Web site
to learn how you can help your workers become
more engaged in the political process, register
to vote, identify polling places and learn about
business issues that directly affect your
company:
www.coloradoprosperity.org
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 |
