CACI Newsletter

Legislative leaders yesterday afternoon addressed CACI members in the Old Supreme Court Chamber on a wide variety of issues, including health care, transportation, economic development, taxes and the state budget.

Governor Bill Ritter’s Speech to CACI Yesterday Now Available on the Internet

CACI members can listen to the Governor’s remarks yesterday at the CACI Business Day at the Legislature Luncheon at the Brown Palace by clicking on this link:

http://media.sccwebdata.com:8080/cochamber/

HB-1072, the union-backed bill that will essentially repeal the 63-year-old Colorado Labor Peace Act, will be heard Tuesday morning by the Senate Business Affairs, Labor and Technology Committee.

The Committee’s chair, Senate Jennifer Veiga, is the bill’s sponsor in the Senate. The hearing will be held in Senate Committee Room 354, which is on the Third Floor of the Capitol, and will begin after the Senate’s floor session, which will begin at 9 a.m., adjourns.

CACI urges its members to contact the majority-party Democratic members of this Committee to express your opposition to this bill.

However, you should only do this if (a) you live in the senator’s district; (b) your company is located in the senator’s district; or (c) you personally know the senator. (As a general rule, legislators who are contacted by citizens who don’t meet any of the above criteria tend to ignore the citizens’ messages because they don’t represent those individuals.)

CACI believes that the three minority-party Republicans on the Committee will vote to oppose HB-1072 and, therefore, it’s not critical that you contact them.

If you need assistance in determining whether or not you live in a senator’s district or your company is located in a the district, contact Bonnie Finley, CACI Program Director, at 303.866.9643 or via e-mail at bfinley@COchamber.com

Several other business organizations are urging their members to attend the Committee hearing Tuesday morning. It’s also very likely that there will be a large turn-out of union members to demonstrate their support for the bill. When the turnout for a hearing is larger than the room can accommodate, the hearing often is moved to a larger room, such as the Old Supreme Court Chamber on the Third Floor. If you should decide to go, please be aware that the bill could be pulled from the Committee agenda at the last moment and not be heard.

The Board of Directors of the Colorado Chamber of Commerce Executives, which is affiliated with CACI, voted Wednesday to oppose HB1072.

CACI today is in the process today of putting up an MP3 file on the CACI Web site that will contain Governor Bill Ritter’s remarks yesterday to the CACI Business Day at the Legislature Luncheon at the Brown Palace Hotel.

Finally, here are links to several newspaper stories today about Governor Ritter’s remarks on HB-1072 to CACI as well as related aspects of the HB-1072 issue:

CACI Board Member Jonathan Coors of CoorsTek discusses legislation with House Majority Leader Alice Madden (D-Boulder) at the State Capitol yesterday afternoon.

CACI Testifies in Support of HB-1073, an Illegal-Immigration “Clean-Up” Bill

This bill, sponsored by Rep. Joel Judd (D-Denver), concerns the use of the federal Basic Pilot Program by companies that have a contract with state government by requiring them to “confirm the employment eligibility” of new hires. The bill clarifies HB-1017, which the legislature passed last summer during the special session and which then-Governor Bill Owens signed into law.

CACI contract lobbyist Larry Hudson testified yesterday in support of this bill, which was drafted with assistance from the Mountain States Employers Council, which is mutually affiliated with CACI.

The House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee passed the bill and sent it to the full House for consideration on Second Reading.

Once again, CACI, other business organizations and individual companies are opposing an attempt that would weaken the state’s workers’ compensation system.

This session, HB-1176 would allow an injured worker to change doctors within 90 days of the injury, provided the worker followed certain procedures, and the request could not be denied.

The bill is sponsored by Representative Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora) and Senator Lois Trochtop (D-Thornton). The bill has been assigned to the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee, but it has not been scheduled for a hearing.

Opponents, including CACI, believe that this bill will increase costs on employers and delay the injured worker’s return to work. The bill also will require the insurance company, or the self-insured employer, to provide the names of two “unaffiliated” doctors or one or more networks from which the worker could choose. Current law allows for judicial relief for the small number of workers’ comp cases that can’t be resolved administratively.

CACI Backs Bill to Send Tobacco Settlement Funds to the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center

Yesterday, the CACI Board of Directors voted to support SB-97, which will allocate tobacco settlement funds to a number of health and health-education programs, because it will send 49 percent of those funds to the University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center (HSC).

The HSC and its School of Medicine suffered substantial budget cuts in the years after the 2001 economic recession slump. The new funding stream will help strengthen the HSC, which is critical for health-care and bio-medical research in the state.

The bill is sponsored in the Senate by Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald (D-Golden) and in the House by House Majority Leader Alice Madden (D-Boulder). The bill has been assigned to the Senate State, Veterans & Military affairs Committee.

CACI Members Asked to Participate in Internet-Based Workforce Development Survey

CACI has been asked to request that its members to complete a short, Internet-based survey to help shape the workforce-related information that the State of Colorado provides to you as an employer and manager. The survey is sponsored by the Colorado Workforce Development Council and the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment. This brief survey covers three topics: workforce quality, workforce quantity and general labor-market information.

Workforce-related information takes many forms. Examples are wage rates for new and existing employees, industry-specific job growth or shrinkage rates, existing and emerging career paths, employee turnover rates, sources of net new-job creation, aging/retirement issues, and information related to employee skills vs. job requirements.

Your insights will help the State of Colorado provide employers with more useful information about the state’s current and future workforce. It will also help state government officials develop policies that will make our workforce more competitive

This is a confidential survey; your input will be summarized with other responses. If you would like to receive the overall results of the survey, you can include your email address.

If there is another person in your organization who would be more appropriate to fill out this survey, please pass this e-mail to him or her.