The Senate again today debated a bill that Democrats claim will create jobs and Republicans argue will benefit unions but not Colorado.
“Everybody should be loving this bill,” said Sen. Evie Hudak, D-Westminster, of Senate Bill 12-001.
But clearly everybody was not. Hudak’s measure passed on a 19-16 vote with Democrat Cheri Jahn of Wheat Ridge, who owns her own business, voting with Republicans.
The measure now heads to the Republican-controlled House where its fate is gloomy, considering the passionate arguments against the measure by the GOP.
“This bill creates no private-sector jobs,” said Minority Leader Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs. “How can this be the most important jobs bill of the session?”
The bill is one of the cornerstone bills Democrats have touted as part of their package to get Coloradans back to work.
Senate President Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, urged passage of the measure.
“At the end of the day, what we want is people to be gainfully employed,” he said. “We want people to be able to go home with money in their pocket that they can spend at the movie theater, at a restaurant, on their mortgage, help their kid go to college, whatever it is.”
Under the legislation, the state would grant up to a 5 percent preference to bidders on construction or services contracts costing more than $1 million if the companies certify that at least 90 percent of their workers are Colorado residents. That is, the companies’ bids would be lowered by up to 5 percent for purposes of awarding the contract .
In some cases, after preferences are taken into account, the state could actually pick the highest bids.
The full 5 percent preference would go only to companies that offer health care and retirement benefits to their workers and “access to a federally qualified apprenticeship training program.”
Jahn contended that companies who couldn’t offer health care and apprenticeship programs weren’t necessarily bad employers and shouldn’t be punished.
Lynn Bartels: 303-954-5327 or lbartels@denverpost.com
