Business owners and homeless advocates have the same goal: Get people off the streets. It comes with a big price tag.
Colorado Chamber of Commerce
Posted inBusiness, Economy, News, Politics and Government
Colorado lawmakers plan to overhaul unemployment system, extend benefits to immigrants as they also backfill depleted fund
Colorado lawmakers are planning to introduce a bill as soon as this week that would overhaul the state’s unemployment system and also send roughly $600 million to the depleted unemployment insurance trust fund to lower a $1 billion federal debt hanging over employers. The $600 million replenishment was expected — Gov. Jared Polis made the […]
Posted inEnvironment, News, Transportation
Colorado violates EPA ozone standards again as business groups cheer gutting of draft commuting limits
On the same day environmental groups called out Colorado officials for missing a key EPA deadline to clean up ozone pollution violations widely attributed to driving, business groups declared victory in weakening the state’s new set of rules to reduce air pollution caused by employee car commutes. The double whammy was not lost on conservationists, […]
Posted inBusiness, COVID, Economy, News
Colorado business chambers prepared for the worst during coronavirus. It turns out things weren’t so bad.
The business community braced for the worst when coronavirus restrictions began in March 2020. But more than a year later, it wasn’t as bad as they thought. Early on in the pandemic, Grand Junction Area Chamber of Commerce waived membership fees to let local businesses most in need of help use its resources and webinars […]
Posted inPolitics and Government
Coronavirus bills push lobbying to record total in Colorado. Here’s a look at the big spenders.
The total spent on lobbying at the Colorado Capitol topped $40 million this session — a record driven in part because of contentious last-minute legislation introduced in response to the coronavirus. The spending to lobby the Democratic-led General Assembly is nearly 12% higher than 2019 and $10 million more than in 2016, according to a […]
Posted inBusiness, Politics and Government
How an obscure tax case became a $250 million political fight at the end of the legislative session
With only days left in the 2019 legislative session, Colorado lawmakers were presented with an extraordinary plea from the Polis administration: Pass a law to help the state’s Department of Revenue win an obscure corporate income tax lawsuit, or risk losing hundreds of millions of dollars to what it viewed as a tax loophole for […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Here’s how Colorado Democrats aim to close the gender pay gap, starting with more wage transparency
When Joyce Sterling, a law professor at the University of Denver, studied pay discrepancies among lawyers in the 1990s, she quickly learned there was a big pay gap between men and women with the same skill set. A key finding? “Women don’t always know they’re paid less,” she said. More than a decade later, she […]
Posted inBusiness, News, Politics and Government
Battle with business heats up over Colorado Democrats’ family-leave proposal
Democrats who want paid maternity and medical leave for all Colorado workers have met behind the scenes for months with the state’s top business leaders in an attempt to temper opposition. It doesn’t appear to have worked. The legislation that would require all workers and employers to contribute to a family-leave fund cleared its first […]