By

Dan Pilcher

CACI Senior Vice President

& Chief Operating Officer

Phone: 303.866.9600

E-Mail: dpilcher@COchamber.com

Friday, May 9, 2008

Ballot Initiatives Update

Note: Much of the following information comes from the Web sites of the General Assembly and the Secretary of State’s Office.

http://www.state.co.us/gov_dir/leg_dir/lcsstaff/balpage.htm

http://www.elections.colorado.gov/DDefault.aspx?tid=175

The Calendar

There are certain, important deadlines that await initiative proposals that have been filed (the last day for submitting a proposal to the Legislative Council was April 25th, and 14 were filed that day):

• May 9—the last day for legislative staff to hold a review-and comment meeting.

• May 9—the last day to submit a revised proposal to the legislative staff following an earlier review-and-comment hearing.

• May 9—the last day for filing a proposal, which has passed the review-and- comment meeting, with the Secretary of State for title setting.

• May 21—the last Initiative Title Board meeting.

• May 30—the last Title Board meeting for re-hearings.

• August 4—the last day to submit petition signatures by 3 p.m. to the Secretary of State.

• September 3—the last day for the Secretary of State to make a determination of sufficiency of signatures.

• October 2—the last day that proponents can withdraw their approved initiative, 33 days before the election,.

• November 4—General Election

Anyone unhappy with the ballot title and submission clause approved by the Title Setting Board can file an appeal with the Colorado Supreme Court.

After the Title Setting Board approves the ballot title and submission, the Secretary of State approves the petition form, the petitions are printed and proponents can then circulate the petitions for signatures of registered voters.  The number of required valid signatures to place an initiative on the November ballot is 76,047.

The decision of the Secretary of State that the number of valid signatures is sufficient (or insufficient) can be challenged in Denver District Court within 30 days of the decision by any “registered elector.”  The burden of proof, however, resides with the protesting party.

The Right-to-Work Initiative, Amendment 47

Petitions for the right-to-work initiative proposal, Number 41, with 133,000 signatures were submitted to the Secretary of State’s Office on April 9th.  On April 28th, the Secretary of State ruled that the petition had a “sufficient” number of signatures and designated the initiative as “Amendment 47” for the November ballot.  The campaign organization created to advocate Amendment 47 is “A Better Colorado”:

http://www.abettercolorado.com/

At their March meeting, the CACI Board members present voted overwhelmingly to support the right-to-work measure.

The “Protect Colorado’s Future” Proposals

http://www.protectcoloradosfuture.org/

The following two measures have been appealed to the Colorado Supreme Court on the basis that they violate the single-subject rule; the Initiative Title Setting Board had earlier turned down appeals of both measures for that reason:

• Number 57, “Criminal and Civil Liability of Businesses and Individuals for Business Activities”

• Number 62, “Cause for Employee Suspension and Discharge”

http://www.courts.state.co.us/exec/pubed/initiatives/initiatives.htm

The following four measures--later versions of Numbers 57 and 62--also survived appeals to the Initiative Title Setting Board that they violate the single-subject rule:

• Number 73, “Criminal Conduct by Businesses---Liability”

• Number 74, “Liability of Business Entities and Their Executive Officials—Criminal Liability”

• Number 75, “Criminal Conduct by Businesses—Civil Liability”

• Number 76, “Just Cause for Employee Discharge or Suspension”

Appeals of Numbers 73, 75 and 76 have been filed with the Colorado Supreme Court:

At its March and April Board meetings, the members of the CACI Board of Directors present voted unanimously to oppose Numbers 57, 62, 73, 74, 75 and 76.

To fight Amendment 41, the right-to-work ballot measure, and to support its own ballot proposals, Protect Colorado’s Future has already received about $1.6 million in contributions, much of that from major national labor unions:

http://www.denverpost.com/search/ci_%3Ca%20class='srNewsTitleLink'%20href='http://www.denverpost.com/ci_9187530

The United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local No. 7 Proposals: Round One

http://ufcw7.canvastoolbox.com/

On April 14th, review-and-comment-hearings” were held by legislative staff for the following five measures, which were filed by the United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local No. 7 on March 31st:

• Number 92, “Initiative to Require Employers to Provide Major Medical Health Care Coverage for Employees”

• Number 93, “Safe Workplace Ballot Initiative”

• Number 94, “Initiative Prohibiting Tax Credits or Subsidies to Companies that Relocate Jobs Outside of the United States”

• Number 95, “Initiative to Increase Valuation for Assessment of Non-Residential Property Under Article X, Section 3 of Colorado Constitution”

• Number 96, “Initiative Amending Colorado Revised Statutes to Require Employers to Pride Cost-of-Living Increases”

On Wednesday, the Initiative Title Setting Board approved Numbers 93, and 96, according to The Denver Business Journal.  The Secretary of State’s Office did not return a telephone call to CACI today about the Board’s action on Numbers 92 and 95, and the information had not been posted on the Secretary of State’s Website by mid-afternoon.

The United Food & Commercial Workers Union Local No. 7 Proposals: Round II

On April 25th, the UF&CWU Local No. 7 filed the following four proposals with the Legislative Council:

• Number 115, “Employer Responsibility for Health Care”

• Number 116, “Safe Workplace”

• Number 117, “Cost-of-Living Wage Increase”

• Number 118, “Taxable Value of and Taxes on Property”

On April 25th, the Legislative Council “issued letters” on these proposals without holding a review and comment meeting, presumably repeating staff comments about Numbers 92, 93, 95 and 96 because Numbers 115, 116, 117 and 118 are new versions.

Two More Proposals from (Presumably) “Protect Colorado’s Future”

On April 25th, the following were filed with the Legislative Council, and the review and comment meeting was scheduled for this morning:

• Number 124, “Conditions of Employment”

• Number 125, “Conditions of Employment”

These two nearly identical proposals seek to negate the definition of “labor union” contained in the right-to-work initiative, Amendment 47, in order that, if Amendment 47 is approved by the voters and if either Number 123 or 124 also is approved by the voters, then labor unions would not be subject to Amendment 47.

Here is how Number 124 defines “labor organization,” stipulating that this definition would “prevail over any conflicting definition of ‘labor organization’ in Article XXVIII, including any provision adopted at the 2008 General Election.”

“ . . . ‘labor organization’ means any organizations of employees that exists solely or primarily for a purpose other than dealing with employers, concerning grievances, labor disputes, wages, rates of pay, employee benefits, hours of employment, or conditions of work.”

“Defend Our Economy” Created to Fight Union-Backed Measures

A political issue committee, Defend Our Economy, has been created to oppose the union-supported ballot measures:

www.defendoureconomy.org

Legislature Passes Ballot Referendum to Tighten Up Initiative Process

On Tuesday, the last day of the session, the legislature gave final approval to Senate Concurrent Resolution (SCR) 3, a November ballot referendum that would make it more difficult for voters to amend the Colorado Constitution but easier to propose statutory changes.  For news coverage of SCR-3:

http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_9174515

http://www.rockymountainnews.com/news/2008/may/09/the-right-incentives/?printer=1/