While Colorado remains a very attractive place to live and work, and recent job and business formation data provide reasons for optimism, there are also signs that the direct and indirect costs of doing business in Colorado are beginning to threaten our state’s competitiveness. To avoid losing our edge, our state Legislature should employ more rigorous tools to ensure that the aggregate impact of new regulations does not deplete our economic strength.
A recent survey of business leaders by the Colorado Chamber of Commerce found that respondents were “split on whether the state’s economy is headed in the right direction (48%) or on the wrong track (52%),” with “availability of workforce” and “excessive regulations” as their top two concerns. Among regulations, labor & employment and environmental regulations headed the list of concerns. Similar sentiments are echoed in the Denver Metro EDC and Chamber of Commerce’s latest, “Toward a More Competitive Colorado” report, which noted that 14 of the state’s 36 competitiveness indicators declined relative to competitor states.
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