Colorado’s business leaders might have been concerned before the legislative session began with Democrats in control for the first time in four decades.
They needn’t 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 working with companies that hire employees overseas.
“This has probably been the most anti-business General Assembly since John F. Kennedy took office,” said House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, proudly noting the work led by he and his fellow Republicans. “I think we clearly stopped a lot of bad, anti-business 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.
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 workforce.
“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 GOP Gov. Bill Owens to veto two bills that got through this year.
Agler said 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 for government affairs at the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry, said bills like a measure that would have required businesses to allow workers unpaid time off to attend school functions would have raised costs.
She praised Democrats for helping to kill a number of bills the party’s traditional supporters had pushed for.
She said Romanoff worked closely with business groups to find middle ground.
“He didn’t toe the traditional party line,” she said.
Adams, however, said Romanoff helped kill a number of pro-labor bills because he was afraid he would lose support from the business community he needs to get voter approval for the bipartisan budget fix.
“He hurt people who got him in that position,” Adams said.
Romanoff said the bills didn’t die because of any one special interest group. He also said he expects support from both sides for the budget fix.
“Business should support this because it’s good for business; labor should support this because it’s good for labor. That doesn’t entitle anyone for special favors at the Capitol. The legislature is not for sale,” Romanoff said.
Sen. Mark Hillman, R-Burlington, said he plans to continue the fight next year against the business personal property tax, which he called regressive.
The tax, blamed by critics for hobbling Colorado’s ability to attract new industry, requires businesses with property worth more than $2,500 to pay taxes on 29 percent of its market value each year to counties and local taxing districts.
A proposal by Hillman to phase out the tax over 20 years died.
