Colorado Capitol Report

Colorado Prosperity Project Has a New Look

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State Policy News

Colorado Prosperity Project (CO P2) Has a New Look

Colorado Prosperity Project

Colorado Prosperity Project (CO P2) has a new look!  Check out our new and updated website at www.coloradoprosperity.org!

Colorado Prosperity Project (CO P2) is a collaborative effort between the Colorado Association of Commerce & Industry (CACI) and BIPAC.  It’s designed to aid the communication between employers and their employees on election and policy issues in a non-partisan, pro-business way.  Learn more at www.coloradoprosperity.org.

Employee Voter Registration Week

The General Election is quickly approaching!  Mail ballots will start being mailed to registered voters in mid-October.

Next week is Employee Voter Registration Week! 

It’s time to remind employers and employees to register to vote!  Colorado P2 is participating in a national GOTV outreach effort to get employees registered to vote.  Please see www.coloradoprosperity.org or www.employeesvote.com to learn more.  Both sites have numerous resources to make it easy for employers and the business community to encourage their employees to register and make their voices heard.

 employees vote

Federal Policy News

NAM Study Spotlights $2 Trillion Regulatory Burden on U.S. Economy

Last week, the National Association of Manufactures (NAM) released a study that reports that Federal regulations place a $2 trillion burden on the U.S. economy.  Here’s NAM’s article about the study:

Pay Up: Federal Regulations Cost U.S. Economy More Than $2 Trillion Annually

NEW NAM STUDY SHOWS SMALL MANUFACTURERS FACE MORE THAN THREE TIMES THE BURDEN OF THE AVERAGE U.S. BUSINESS

Contact:
Jamie Hennigan (202-637-3090)
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WASHINGTON, D.C., 09/10/14 –  Complying with federal regulations costs Americans $2.028 trillion in lost economic growth annually, or roughly equivalent to 12 percent of total GDP that could be invested back into our nation’s businesses, according to a new study commissioned by the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM).

The study, conducted by economists Nicole V. and W. Mark Crain, concluded that manufacturing businesses face a disproportionate share of the burden, or $19,564 per employee per year—nearly double what the average U.S. business pays to comply with federal rules. Small manufacturers pay more than three times as much as the average U.S. firm. That is $34,671 per employee per year that small manufacturers could use to grow their businesses and create jobs.

“Manufacturers have long cited more and more complex regulations as a barrier to their growth, and today, we have new data demonstrating the true burdens shouldered by manufacturers throughout the supply chain, particularly the smallest firms, in complying with growing federal mandates,” said NAM President and CEO Jay Timmons. “Manufacturers rely on a stable, balanced and commonsense regulatory environment to create jobs and fuel economic growth. With growing regulatory compliance burdens, policymakers should be alarmed that our nation’s smallest manufacturers are being put at a competitive disadvantage within the global economy.”

The newly released NAM study builds on previous studies conducted by the Crains for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Office of Advocacy. This study updates previous estimates of the cost to comply with federal regulations using new data sources and incorporates the findings of an extensive survey of NAM members that validate conclusions reached in the economic analysis. That survey, for instance, shows that manufacturers would invest more in their businesses and in their people if compliance costs were lessened.

“Our data continue to show that small businesses and manufacturers bear a disproportionate share of compliance costs,” said Nicole V. Crain.

“Overall, we hope that this analysis helps policymakers as they contemplate additional regulatory proposals,” added W. Mark Crain. “Small businesses and manufacturers most frequently identified regulatory issues as the top business challenge.”

“These costs don’t even include the more significant regulations heading our way, such as a new ozone standard from the Environmental Protection Agency that would be the most expensive regulation in U.S. history,” said Timmons. “These and other regulations mean an even larger burden on our country’s small manufacturers. Now is the time to return clear-eyed economic analysis to the policy process and ease the burden on job creators across the country.”

For more information, including the full study and the executive summary, visit www.nam.org/CostofRegulation.

For information on CACI’s Colorado Manufacturing Initiative (CMI), contact Patrick Pratt, CMI Program Manager, at 303.656.6915.

Women-Owned Businesses Growing Faster Than the National Average

American Express marked its fourth annual “State of Women-Owned Businesses” report by looking closely at the role these businesses play in the U.S. economy and why this successful demographic is growing more quickly than the national average.

The report found:

  • In 2014, there are 9.1 million women-owned enterprises, employing 7.9 million workers and generating $1.4 trillion in revenue;
  • Women-owned firms grew at one and one-half times the national average from 2007 to 2014;
  • Women-owned businesses saw an average net increase of 591 businesses per day from 1997 through 2014,, including 714 per day from 2002 through 2007, 506 per day over the last seven years and 1,288 women-owned businesses created per day over the last year;
  • Colorado is not among the top or bottom five states for women-owned businesses or growth; and
  • Industries with the top concentration of women-owned industries were health care/social assistance (53 percent), educational services (45 percent), administration and waste management (37 percent) while those with the lowest women-owned were construction (7 percent), transportation and warehousing (11 percent), wholesale trade (19 percent) and finance/insurance (20 percent).