The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce’s annual legislative scorecard, released Wednesday, confirmed that this year’s session was politically divisive and painful for business interests.
Overall, the General Assembly sided with the chamber on 58 percent of the bills on which the business group took a position, down from 80 percent last year.
“It was a tough year,” chamber chief executive Kelly Brough said.
The chamber will use the results to discuss issues with legislators in coming weeks, she said.
“Our focus during the session was growing jobs for Colorado. That’s not going to change this year or next year,” Brough said.
Lawmakers were more divided on business issues than last year, with most Republicans aligning with the chamber on at least 70 percent of votes and most Democrats opposing it on at least 60 percent of votes.
The session’s biggest loss for business was a set of bills that eliminated long-standing tax exemptions, including those on energy used in manufacturing and downloaded software. The bills, aimed at helping close a $1.3 billion gap in the 2010-11 state budget, are expected to generate up to $140 million for the state in the fiscal year starting next month.
“On our side of the aisle, the overwhelming and strong view was that the way to get this economy moving again is creation of jobs in the private sector,” said Rep. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican who voted with the chamber 93 percent of the time. “At some point, we will reach the tipping point for the business climate in Colorado and businesses will cease to come here and will begin to leave.”
But Rep. Su Ryden, an Aurora Democrat who owns a marketing company and voted against the chamber on all but 18 percent of bills, said business overplayed its hand on the tax exemptions and other issues. Its losses were modest compared with education and other critical parts of the budget, she said.
“We all had to share in the pain. Individuals and families are really suffering,” she said. “I was really looking at the fairness, sharing the pain. We were trying not to hurt anybody too much, and I feel we did a pretty good job.”
The chamber took a position on 61 pieces of legislation it deemed important to the business community, or about 8 percent of the total bills introduced.
Greg Griffin: 303-954-1241 or ggriffin@denverpost.com
