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Dan Pilcher
CACI Senior Vice President
& Chief Operating Officer
Phone: 303.866.9600
E-Mail:
dpilcher@cochamber.com
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
NOTE:
It appears that the Colorado General Assembly
will not adjourn its 67th Session today as the
legislative leaders had hoped. Tomorrow is the
120th day of the session, and the legislature
must adjourn by midnight according to the
Colorado Constitution.
PENDING BILLS
Here are a couple of the bills, which CACI is
lobbying, that are still alive this afternoon:
HB-1170, Unemployment Insurance (UI) union
workers lock-out. The bill awaits House
consideration of Senate amendments to the bill.
HB-1366, capital-gains bill. On Friday, the
Senate Finance Committee passed an amended bill
and yesterday the Senate Appropriations
Committee amended and passed the bill. The bill
awaits Senate Second Reading.
BILLS KILLED
Yesterday, the House on Second Reading laid over
until August 7th HB-1323, the bill that would
have mandated energy-efficiency/conservation
programs on Intermountain Rural Electric
Association (IREA), which is a CACI member.
Since the legislature will adjourn tomorrow, the
bill is effectively dead. CACI opposed this
effort that targeted one company.
BILLS PASSED BY THE LEGISLATURE,
SENT TO THE GOVERNOR
HB-1057, Mandated Parental Leave, Heads to
Governor’s Desk
Yesterday, following the lead of the House, the
Senate agreed to adopt an amended HB-1057, which
sends the bill on to the Governor. The House a
week ago Monday had adopted the bill, which
contained an amendment from the House-Senate
conference committee that pertained to the key
provision concerning when an employer could
restrict leave.
On April 16th, the conference committee agreed
to a change to HB-1057. The language adopted by
the conference committee states that an employer
can refuse a worker’s request for leave “in a
situation where the absence of the employee
would result in a halt of services or
production.”
Before the conference committee met, here’s
where the language—for which CACI and other
business organizations had lobbied in the
Senate--stood on the key provision that
stipulated when an employer could restrict leave
for a worker:
“ . . . . an employer may limit the ability of
an employee to take leave pursuant to this
section in cases of emergency or other
situations that may endanger a person’s health
of safety or that necessitate the presence of
the employee.”
Last month, the Senate Education Committee
amended and approved HB-1057 on a partisan
five-to-three vote. The amendment added by the
Senate Education Committee reflected the
lobbying effort of CACI and other business
organizations to strengthen the right of an
employer to refuse a worker’s request for leave
“in cases of emergency or other situations that
may endanger a person’s health or safety
or that
necessitate the presence of the employee.” The
key word in this sentence is “or,”
which replaced “and.”
HB-1057 would require companies that employ 50
or more workers provide up to 18 hours of unpaid
leave in an academic year in three-hour blocks
to workers who want to attend parent-teacher
conferences or other academic activities related
to the educational achievement of the employee’s
child. The worker could take no more than six
hours in one month. The worker also could elect
to take paid sick or vacation leave instead of
the unpaid leave. The leave could be used for
parent-teacher conferences and for meetings for
a special-education student, to prevent a
student from dropping out, or for disciplinary
matters.
Legislature Approves Amended Pinnacol Assurance
Bill, SB-281
Yesterday, both the House and Senate approved
SB-281 with an amendment approved by the
House-Senate conference committee that met last
Thursday. The bill now goes to the desk of
Governor Bill Ritter for his consideration.
The final bill calls for two things: a
“performance audit” this year of Pinnacol and a
legislative interim committee to study Pinnacol
this summer and fall.
The performance audit--to be conducted by the
State Auditor but to be paid for by Pinnacol--will
look at “executive compensation, premium rate
structure, known loss reserves, incurred but not
reported losses, and injured workers’ claims
experience.” The State Auditor is given the
authority to conduct more performance audits in
the future, and Pinnacol will be required to pay
for them.
An important step by the conference committee
was to drop the language that would have allowed
the legislative interim committee to open up the
entire workers’ comp system and statues to
examination.
The Study Group is directed to only examine “the
operation of Pinnacol Assurance including, but
not limited to both the feasibility of the
continued operation and the public policy
implications of Pinnacol Assurance as a division
of state government or the feasibility and
public policy implications of selling Pinnacol
Assurance to a willing third-party buyer.”
The conference committee amendment also expands
the size of the legislative interim
committee--called the “Worker Safety and Injury
Compensation Study Group”—from 13 to 16 by
including three more members, all jointly
appointed by the legislative leadership: a
Pinnacol policyholder, a member of the public
knowledgeable about workers’ compensation
insurance, and an injured worker.
Although the amended bill is much more palatable
to the business community than the introduced
version, CACI remains opposed to the bill
because the interim committee, given its
composition and its charge by the legislature,
may very likely come up with bill
recommendations for the 2010 session that will
harm Pinnacol. CACI strongly believes that
Pinnacol performs very well for its
policyholders and injured workers, and the
legislature should leave it alone.
On April 23rd, five Democratic Representatives
voted “no”, along with the Minority Republicans,
on Third Reading to oppose the more stringent
version of SB-281 that called not only for
performance audits but for an interim
legislative committee to study worker safety and
the workers’ comp system:
Thirty-three Democrats voted for the bill, which
is the minimum number of votes needed to pass a
bill in the House. Opponents of the bill
mustered 30 votes. Two representatives were
excused and not present: Scott Tipton (R-Cortez)
and Paul Weissmann (D-Louisville).
BILLS SIGNED BY THE GOVERNOR
Governor Ritter Signs Bill Creating Tax
Incentive to Encourage Job Growth
Yesterday Governor Bill Ritter signed HB-1001,
which CACI supported. At the invitation of the
Governor’s Office, CACI President Chuck Berry
joined other business leaders and legislators to
attend the bill signing ceremony outside of the
World Trade Center in downtown Denver.
The bill was the Governor’s top priority this
session for economic development. To
participate in the bill’s program, a business
would have to meet certain criteria and apply to
the Colorado Economic Development Commission.
The firm would be eligible for a corporate
income-tax credit of up to half of its annual
FICA taxes on new workers. The tax credit would
be calculated on a year-to-year basis for five
years according to the number of FTEs on the
payroll of the business at the end of the year.
In order for the tax credit to be granted, a
company would have to prove that, if it wasn’t
for this program, the company would not move or
expand its operations in Colorado.
For more on this bill, click on:
http://www.denverpost.com/legislature/ci_12289160 |
