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HB25-1005 offers $34M in tax credits to attract Sundance Film Festival to Boulder
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State, The Sum & Substance

HB25-1005 offers $34M in tax credits to attract Sundance Film Festival to Boulder

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado’s film-incentive program has generated division among legislators since its inception. The state’s effort to attract the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder, however, is getting near-unanimous support. The House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on Wednesday approved the creation of a new incentive tax credit to draw what is arguably America’s most prestigious film festival away from its long-time home in Park City, Utah. Having outgrown the 8,400-person town, the 11-day festival that attracts some 70,000 annual attendees has narrowed its search for a new home to three locations: Salt Lake City (in conjunction with Park City), Cincinnati and Boulder. Under House Bill 1005, sponsored by House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat R...
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Legislative health-care debates commence in the 75th General Assembly
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State, The Sum & Substance

Legislative health-care debates commence in the 75th General Assembly

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Several health-care bills — including two scheduled for their first hearings this week — are set to reignite the debate this legislative session on whether the benefits of greater coverage mandates are equal to the greater costs they’ll bring. And it won’t be just insurance issues that will occupy legislators’ discussions on health care this year. Regulation of a federal drug-pricing program, Medicaid-generated budget problems and the fate of the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer all are on the table, causing legislators to have to think deeply about why health-care spending is rising and what impacts they can have on businesses and consumers. On Wednesday, a House committee will discuss a bill that seeks to require health benef...
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Task force on disability rights recommends major changes to Colorado law
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State, The Sum & Substance

Task force on disability rights recommends major changes to Colorado law

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Following three months of deliberations, a task force studying the rights of Coloradans with disabilities has softened some recommendations to boost awards in antidiscrimination lawsuits but still offered proposals likely to stir significant business opposition. Among the task force’s recommendations are to let plaintiffs in disability-related antidiscrimination suits seek emotional damages, to replace existing caps on noneconomic damages and to extend to three years the timeline for filing such legal action. The recommendations — along with about 50 less controversial suggestions involving housing accessibility, outdoor recreation and government services — are likely to end up in a bill during this legislative session. During sometimes com...
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Legislators will debate a very different wage-theft bill this year, but opposition remains
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State, The Sum & Substance

Legislators will debate a very different wage-theft bill this year, but opposition remains

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance After Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a 2024 construction wage-theft-enforcement bill that he said could trip up law-abiding contractors, proponents are back with a follow-up that doesn’t single out one industry — but that may harm many sectors, some business leaders warn. House Bill 1001, sponsored by House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge and fellow Democratic Rep. Meg Froelich of Greenwood Village, is scheduled for its first hearing Thursday afternoon before the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee. And its compromise efforts already have gotten a shout-out from Polis in his State of the State Address, starting it on much firmer ground than that on which last year’s effort began. A major reason that the bill is getti...
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State grappling with funding insurance enterprise into the future, and solution could be premium fee hike
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State, The Sum & Substance

State grappling with funding insurance enterprise into the future, and solution could be premium fee hike

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance A Colorado enterprise that offers free health insurance to undocumented immigrants and helps fund the state’s reinsurance program is likely to be short of revenue by 2027, spurring consideration of options that include raising fees on statewide health insurance policies. The Health Insurance Affordability Exchange board will meet at 8 a.m. Friday to discuss how to deal with the situation and how to grapple with the uncertainty around future federal funding. If it elects to pursue a fee increase, such an effort would have to go before the Legislature prior to the May 7 conclusion of its 2025 regular session. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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SB5, the Labor Peace Act overhaul, advances over business complaints
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State, The Sum & Substance

SB5, the Labor Peace Act overhaul, advances over business complaints

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Senate Democrats used their first bill hearing of the 2025 legislative session Tuesday to advance a proposed major change to the state’s Labor Peace Act, saying that the 82-year-old “compromise” law is not working for Colorado employees anymore. The 4-3, party-line vote from the Senate Business, Labor & Technology Committee to send Senate Bill 5 to the Appropriations Committee came despite business warnings that erosion of the law will depress the state’s falling economic competitiveness even more. But one of its supporters said he’d like to see business and labor leaders find a compromise — a plea issued before the sides were set for a major negotiating session on Wednesday. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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State air quality officials identify five priority toxic contaminants, leading to more regulation
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State, The Sum & Substance

State air quality officials identify five priority toxic contaminants, leading to more regulation

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado officials took the first steps Friday in adding new control measures around five priority toxic air contaminants produced by sources ranging from oil-and-gas drilling to wastewater processing to the sterilization of medical equipment. By choosing the five priority toxics, the Colorado Air Quality Control Commission triggered a process that will lead to creation of health-based standards around the compounds in September and then approval of emission-control strategies in 2026. Environmental activists cheered a future in which contaminants create fewer health problems in long-polluted areas, while business leaders warned that AQCC members selected the quintet without any discussion of whether the toxins are feasible to control. READ...
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Less than one-third of voters support changes to Labor Peace Act, poll finds
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State, The Sum & Substance

Less than one-third of voters support changes to Labor Peace Act, poll finds

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Less than a week before the first scheduled hearing of a bill to rewrite Colorado’s Labor Peace Act, a coalition of business groups has released a poll that it argues shows voters of all stripes are overwhelmingly opposed to the proposed changes. The 82-year-old law is unique among states in that it requires two votes for workers to unionize a company and then to allow automatic paycheck deductions to fund union negotiating activities. The first vote to unionize requires a simple majority, but the second vote to allow fee deductions needs 75% support — a provision that unions call an unnecessary barrier and that business leaders say keeps union-opposed workers from having to pay the organizations. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTA...
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Senate Republicans regulatory rollback package aimed at saving Colorado families $4,500 annually
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State, The Sum & Substance

Senate Republicans regulatory rollback package aimed at saving Colorado families $4,500 annually

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Just days after Gov. Jared Polis called for legislators to pass regulatory reform, Colorado Senate Republicans offered the first package to that effect on Tuesday, though it’s unclear whether their proposals are what the governor was seeking. At a morning news conference, members of the caucus announced a series of bills that Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, R-Monument, said would create an average annual savings of $4,500 per family if passed. The bills involve repeal of new fees and regulatory increases signed since 2019, rollback of regulations concerning homebuilding and new approaches to energy policy. The announcement follows the December release of a study commissioned by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce that found Colorado is the ...
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Opening-day bills tackle unionization, wage theft, price gouging, Ozempic and more
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State, The Sum & Substance

Opening-day bills tackle unionization, wage theft, price gouging, Ozempic and more

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado legislative Democrats stormed out of the gate Wednesday by introducing two major pro-labor efforts as well as several cost-of-living bills that are likely to generate significant debate because of the methods they use to bring down costs. Meanwhile, legislators from both parties revived previously killed bills on the first day of the 2025 session, including a proposed limit on grocery-store liquor sales, a proposed study of a single-payer health-care system and a now-bipartisan effort to boost nuclear energy. Plus, a pair of Democrats introduced a bill calling for state regulators to consider the impact on workforce of potential new air-quality regulations. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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