Business leaders might have been concerned before the state legislative session began with Democrats in control for the first time in four decades.
They need not have worried: Republicans and Democrats teamed up to kill off a series of bills opposed by businesses, from parental leave to proposed bans on smoking and on working with companies that hire employees overseas.
“This has probably been the most antibusiness General Assembly since John F. Kennedy took office,” said House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, proudly noting the work led by he and his fellow Republicans. “I think we clearly stopped a lot of bad, antibusiness legislation.”
Democrats said they kept their promises to business by passing a number of bills this session, including a proposed budget fix on the November ballot to help the state recover from three years of revenue shortfalls.
The Democrats have promised to plow that money – an estimated $3.2 billion – into roads, education and health care, which House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said will bring new jobs and create a strong work force.
“We’ve been trapped into thinking that we have to be pro-labor or pro-business. It turns out that a strong economy is good for both,” said Romanoff, D-Denver.
Still, the list of measures opposed by business that died during the session is long. Besides the failed bans addressing smoking and overseas hiring, lawmakers killed a measure that would have allowed injured employees to pick their own doctors in workers’ compensation cases and another that would have limited the rights of property owners in rent-controlled housing contracts.
Steve Adams, president of the Colorado AFL-CIO, said businesses were forced to fight this year to kill bills they opposed instead of getting them buried by GOP-controlled committees.
“Because the Republicans have been in charge for so long, and the state has become so pro-business and anti-worker, we were nibbling around the edges,” Adams said. “We didn’t come out with anything that would put businesses out of business, but they didn’t want any changes at all because they’ve had carte blanche at the Capitol.”
Vickie Agler, lobbyist for the National Federation of Independent Business, said her organization is asking Republican Gov. Bill Owens to veto two bills that got through this year.
One could cause legal problems for small employers by allowing employees and former employees to inspect and copy their personnel file, Agler said. She said the other would cause rate increases in unemployment insurance.
Heidi Heltzel, vice president of government affairs for the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, said bills such as a measure that would have required businesses to allow workers time off to attend school functions would have raised costs.
