Colorado Republican Business Coalition Supports These Pro Business Bills

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The 2012 Session of the Colorado General Assembly ends on May 9th and there is still a lot of work yet to be done. Here are the bills the CRBC Legislative Issues Committee has voted to support that may still have some action pending, each of which if passed we believe will have a positive impact on small business:

  • HB12-1002, The CLEAR Act & Application Permit Rules, Sponsor Rep. Sonnenberg: House to consider adopting the Conference Committee Report
  • HB12-1008, General Assembly & Public Input, Proposed Agency & Fees, Sponsor Rep. Acree: heading to the Governor’s office.
  • HB12-1036, Open Records Act Clarification, Sponsor Rep. Jim Kerr: House to consider passing with Senate amendments.
  • HB12-1119, Success Act to Limit State Agency Fines, Sponsor Rep. Coram: we believe Senate Health & Human Services committee will handle next.
  • HB12-1272, Enhanced Benefits, Unemployed Workers in Training, Sponsor Rep.Ramirez: if passes Senate Third Reading then off to the Governor.
  • SB12-027, Committee of Reference Review of Rules, Sponsors Senator Scheffel and Rep. Ramirez: if passes House Third Reading without amendment then off to the Governor.
  • SB12-086, Study Cost of Regulatory Compliance for Business, Sponsor Senator Cadman: House Appropriations to now handle. If no amendments then to House Committee of the Whole and if passes Third Reading without amendment then off to the Governor.

The above list is not meant to be all-inclusive. The Representatives and Senators shown are some of the sponsors, in some cases the sole sponsors. For more information about any of these bills please go to the Colorado General Assembly website and also to our CRBC Legislative Matrix at www.smallbizgop.com . We encourage you to stay involved. Please contact your Representative and Senator in support of one or more of these bills. The contact information for all of the legislators can be found in the Contact Information [Legislative Directory] page on the Colorado General Assembly website.

Colorado Republican Business Coalition Strongly Opposes Senate Bill 1

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  • CRBC strongly opposes Senate Bill 1
  • The Denver Post editorial headline on Monday this week sums up well why this bill should be killed:

 ”SB 1 boosts the cost of business. In this economy, the last thing Colorado should be doing is creating protectionist rules for labor.”

Here are several reasons CRBC opposes this bill:

  • This bill does not create jobs or help jump-start the Colorado economy.
  • This bill will add to the cost of goods and services purchased by state agencies by steering contracts to companies that get preference points, rather than going to the lowest bidder.
  • Current law already restricts state contracts of $1 million or more to companies that have at least 80% Colorado residents. This bill does not really replace this 80% requirement with a new 90% residency standard – it adds the 90% rule ON TOP OF the existing 80% standard because the 80% standard is left untouched as it applies to “types and classes of labor”. This will create a complicated two-tier preference point system that would be difficult to administer and difficult for companies to comply with.
  • This bill is bad for small business. It gives preference points to employers with specific types of health plans and job training plans – which will have the effect of discriminating against small firms who often cannot afford to offer generous health insurance plans, and will tend to give preferential treatment to unionized companies because of the “federally qualified apprenticeship” provision – such factors having nothing to do with a company’s ability to perform the work required on a state contracts.

Please join us in letting the members of the House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee know that you oppose this bill either by emailing them or calling them directly or by using the Capitol Contact link below:

Jim Kerr, HD 28, Chair, james.kerr.house@state.co.us , 303.866.2939
Don Coram, HD58, Vice-Chair, don.coram.house@state.co.us , 303.866.2955
Randy Baumgardner, HD57, randy.baumgardner.house@state.co.us , 303.866.2949
Larry Liston, HD 16, larry.liston.house@state.co.us , 303.866.2965
Mark Waller, HD15, mark.waller.house@state.co.us , 303.866.5525
Capitol Contact

This bill is scheduled to be heard on April 25, 2012 at 1:30 p.m.in House Committee Room 112. Thank you for helping defeat this bill.

Sincerely, Andy Anderson, Chairman Colorado Republican Business Coalition andy.anderson@smallbizgop.com 303.829.9435

Join us March 16, 2012 at Brooklyn’s for Joe Coors and Sen. Bill Cadman!

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  • Learn why Joe Coors, who is running for the CD 7 seat, believes the American Dream is under threat because of burgeoning debt, crippling taxes and the growing regulatory onslaught on job creators, and what he wants to do about it.
  • Get the latest update from Senator Cadman about what’s happening in the legislature, along with his views about this critical Colorado and Presidential election year.

Friday, March 16, 2012, 11:30 a.m. – 1 p.m Brooklyn’s at the Pepsi Center
Parking $1 at Lot A – tell attendant you’re going to the CRBC luncheon, $20 member, $25 non-member, $15 student; menu choices. RSVP ( not required, but appreciated ) repgop@gmail.com.

Joe Coors, Candidate CD7Joe Coors has been a fixture of the Colorado community for decades. Throughout Joe’s life, he has focused on his family, his faith, his work and serving his community. He has held many jobs, stockbroker, systems analyst, computer programmer, general supervisor and CEO. He was President and CEO of CoorsTek, a manufacturer of ceramics for high technology purposes; a company he took public, along with ACX Technologies, Inc. Joe is Chairman of the Out of the Box Foundation and sits on the Board of Crosswalk Fellowship and is a current board member of the Club of Rolling Hills. He has served on the boards of the Hecla Mining Company and St. Anthony Hospital. He served as Chairman of the Air Force Memorial Foundation and Chair of the U.S. Advanced Ceramics Association and served on the Board of Trustees of the Colorado School of Mines. He attended North Carolina State University where he majored in Math and minored in Ceramic Engineering. He and his wife Gail raised four children and are the proud grandparents of eight grandchildren. This year Joe and Gail celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary.

Senator Bill Cadman

Senator Bill Cadman represents Colorado State Senate District 10 which includes North Eastern Colorado Springs and rural El Paso County. He serves as the Senate Minority Leader and he represents the voice of the Colorado Senate Republican Caucus in the State Senate.Bill is in his twelfth year in the legislature. Prior to the Senate, he served 7 years in the House. He also serves on the Colorado Statewide Internet Portal Authority board. Prior to running for office, Bill served as the District Office Manager for Congressman Joel Heffley. Bill is a seasoned marketing and public affairs professional who operates his own firm, Advantage Marketing and Public Relations. Bill’s marketing successes include numerous winning campaigns with candidates in local, state and national races as well as statewide and municipal initiatives and referenda. He holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Business Administration and Marketing from California State University. Senator Cadman is also a veteran of the U.S. Army. Bill and Lisa make their home in Colorado Springs with their two sons.

Capitol Review by Mark Hillman

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Repost of CAPITOL REVIEW

Mark Hillman, 24 February 2012
Mark’s Must Reads

A syllabus for the Occupy movement – Glenn Reynolds, Wall St Journal
Death of long-gun registry – John R. Lott, National Review
Obama as Ceasar – Michael Novak, National Review
Green Lobby complaints put West Slope jobs in doubt – Colorado Observer
Stop treating employers like adversaries 

At a time when state legislators should be doing everything possible to encourage job creation, a bill working its way through the Colorado Legislature unfairly paints employers as unreasonable and untrustworthy.

Worse still, Senate Bill 3 gives trial lawyers another opportunity to sink their teeth into Colorado’s job creators – extracting “damages” where none exist and forcing employers to pay dearly just to prove their innocence.

Would it surprise you to learn that the bill’s sponsor, Sen. Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora), just happens to be a trial lawyer with one of the state’s most high-profile firms?  Or that, at the bill’s first hearing in the Senate Judiciary Committee which Carroll chairs, not a single witness claimed to have been denied a job or a promotion as a result of a credit history check?

According to Carroll, employers should be prohibited by law from reviewing a job applicant’s credit history and could be sued by applicants or disgruntled employees if they do.  The bill makes a very narrow exception only for jobs in defense and security.

When customers engage in a transaction, we often entrust a business with our personal financial information, and we expect them to keep it confidential and secure.  Businesses know that consumer fraud is a $30 billion-a-year problem, so one precaution they take is to review the credit history of potential employees.  But credit history isn’t the only factor considered in the hiring process nor is it the most important.

Moreover, businesses don’t sneak around to snoop at employees’ credit history.  The federal Fair Credit Reporting Act already requires employers to obtain written permission from the applicant to check credit history.  Even then, the employer doesn’t see the actual credit score.

Various media reports suggest, using mostly anecdotal evidence, that job applicants with poor credit histories cannot get a job and that it’s normal for a person’s credit history to tank after losing a job.

Neither happens to be true.

With truly rare exceptions, an individual has more control over his or her credit history than does any external factor.

Losing a job certainly puts a strain on anyone’s finances, but not everyone who is unemployed dives deeply into debt or fails to make responsible adjustments to their spending habits.  Surely job-seekers who maintain sound credit through these difficulties are entitled to be distinguished from those who don’t.

According to the Denver Post, “Senator Carroll said it’s unfair that a bad credit record should keep an otherwise qualified candidate from landing a job.”  In fact, a bad credit rating is rarely, if ever, the determining factor.

Employers are, by and large, reasonable people who use a myriad of criteria to make personnel decisions.  By considering an applicant’s employment history, training and references, employers are capable of discerning between someone who’s recently fallen on hard times and someone who is habitually one step ahead of the collection agency.

What is alarming is the persistent drumbeat by some legislators that treat employers as unscrupulous adversaries who must be constantly regulated, micromanaged and threatened with litigation.

Colorado businesses are job creators whose faith in our state’s economic climate and its government is essential to spur a sustained recovery.  Yet year after year, a handful of legislators devise still more ways to make Colorado employers jump through regulatory hoops and spend countless hours and thousands of dollars in the courts defending themselves against mostly bogus allegations concocted by trial lawyers seeking a quick payday on behalf of disgruntled former employees.

Senate Bill 3 is yet another political solution in search of a real-world problem.  Federal law already ensures that job-seekers control access to their credit history.

Here’s hoping legislators who recognize employers as allies rather than adversaries will stand together to defeat this ill-considered measure.
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How To Address Ideologues Cheerfully in 2012…

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If you would overcome the banal attacks of non-thinking ideologues, you must arm yourself with both knowledge and wisdom.  Knowledge is your sword; wisdom your armor and your shield.

Behold—WISDOM, wrapped often in sarcasm and humor…

1. In my many years I have come to a conclusion that one useless man is a shame, two is a law firm and three or more is a congress. — John Adams

2. If you don’t read the newspaper you are uninformed, if you do read the newspaper you are misinformed.– Mark Twain

3. Suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But then I repeat myself.– Mark Twain

4. I contend that for a nation to try to tax itself into prosperity is like a man standing in a bucket and trying to lift himself up by the handle.– Winston Churchill

5. A government which robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.– George Bernard Shaw

6. A liberal is someone who feels a great debt to his fellow man, which debt he proposes to pay off with your money.– G. Gordon Liddy

7. Democracy must be something more than two wolves and a sheep voting on what to have for dinner.– James Bovard, Civil Libertarian (1994)

8. Foreign aid might be defined as a transfer of money from poor people in rich countries to rich people in poor countries.– Douglas Casey, Classmate of Bill Clinton at Georgetown University

9. Giving money and power to government is like giving whiskey and car keys to teenage boys.– P.J. O’Rourke, Civil Libertarian

10. Government is the great fiction, through which everybody endeavors to live at the expense of everybody else.– Frederic Bastiat, French economist(1801-1850)

11. Government’s view of the economy could be summed up in a few short phrases: If it moves, tax it. If it keeps moving, regulate it. And if it stops moving, subsidize it.– Ronald Reagan (1986)

12. I don’t make jokes. I just watch the government and report the facts.– Will Rogers

13. If you think health care is expensive now, wait until you see what it costs when it’s free!– P.J. O’Rourke

14. In general, the art of government consists of taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other.– Voltaire (1764)

15. Just because you do not take an interest in politics doesn’t mean politics won’t take an interest in you!– Pericles (430 B.C.)

16. No man’s life, liberty, or property is safe while the legislature is in session.– Mark Twain (1866)

17. Talk is cheap…except when Congress does it.– Anonymous

18. The government is like a baby’s alimentary canal, with a happy appetite at one end and no responsibility at the other.– Ronald Reagan

19. The inherent vice of capitalism is the unequal sharing of the blessings. The inherent blessing of socialism is the equal sharing of misery.– Winston Churchill

20. The only difference between a tax man and a taxidermist is that the taxidermist leaves the skin.– Mark Twain

21. The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.– Herbert Spencer, English Philosopher (1820-1903)

22. There is no distinctly Native American criminal class…save Congress.– Mark Twain

23. What this country needs are more unemployed politicians.– Edward Langley, Artist (1928-1995)

24. A government big enough to give you everything you want, is strong enough to take everything you have.– Thomas Jefferson

25. We hang the petty thieves and appoint the great ones to public office.– Aesop

FIVE SENTENCES; Infinite Wisdom – by Adrain Rogers

  • “Friend, you cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the wealthy out of freedom.  And what one person receives without working for, another person must work for without receiving. The government can’t give to anybody anything that the government does not first take from somebody. And when half of the people get the idea they don’t have to work because the other half’s going to take care of them, and when the other half get the idea it does no good to work because somebody’s going to get what I work for. That, dear friend, is about the end of any nation.”

Re-Post of “Capital Review” by Mark Hillman

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CAPITOL REVIEW

Mark Hillman, 3 January 2012  
‘Rationality’ eludes judge in school lawsuit   

When Gov. John Hickenlooper announced that the state will appeal a Denver court’s ruling that the state inadequately funds education, he acknowledged what Judge Sheila Rappaport – and previously the Colorado Supreme Court – would not: money is a finite resource, even when it’s spent on worthy causes and when it’s spent by government.

The state legislature allocates $4.3 billion to educate more than 800,000 students – just under $6,500 each – in K-12 public schools.  According to the Colorado Department of Education, other sources bring that total to a statewide average of nearly $13,000, as of 2009-10.

Over two years ago, the supreme court ruled, in a contentious 4-3 decision, that a lower court should entertain claims brought by a group of parents and school districts that the state constitution’s call for a “thorough and uniform” system of free public schools should be interpreted to require a specific funding amount.

That lawsuit, Lobato vs. Colorado, reverted back to Rappaport’s courtroom, albeit with instructions that “the trial court must give substantial deference to the legislature’s fiscal and policy judgments.”

Rappaport’s decision, however, offered no such deference.  Her ruling reads like a brief for the plaintiffs – not like a judgment that gives even a modicum of respect to the legislature’s constitutional authority to fund public schools or, more broadly, to adopt a state budget.

She condescendingly dismissed the state’s arguments, while fawning over various creative claims and tendentious documents provided by the Lobato plaintiffs, leading to these incredible conclusions:

* “[T]he entire system of public school finance . . . is not rationally related to the mandate of the Education Clause.”

* “There is not one school district that is sufficiently funded.”

* “Current economic conditions . . . have made an unworkable situation unconscionable.  But Colorado’s history of irrational and inadequate school funding goes back over two decades.”

If irrationality is a disqualifier, then Rappaport’s decision is on thin ice.

For example, she consults the dictionary to accurately define “rational,” “irrational” and “relationship” because the Supreme Court used those terms in remanding the case.  She does not, however, provide that same level of analysis to ascertain what Colorado’s founders intended when wrote, “[T]he general assembly shall . . . provide for the establishment and maintenance of a thorough and uniform system of free public schools throughout the state . . .” (emphasis added).

Because “thorough” and “uniform” appear in the state constitution – unlike “rational,” “irrational” and “relationship” – a judge seeking to objectively apply the law might want to know if those terms dictate a necessary and quantifiable level of spending.

Of course, they do not.  An earlier supreme court said, “We are unable to find any historical background to glean guidance regarding the intention of the framers.”

Rappaport adopts the Lobato plaintiffs’ argument that, because lawmakers have implemented a means of measuring schools’ and students’ performance against quantifiable expectations, the state is obligated to radically increase funding, perhaps to nearly double current levels.

Her ruling rests on the plaintiffs’ creative assertion that a specific funding mandate is created by the convergence of standards and assessments, the constitution’s “thorough and uniform” clause, and the constitutional stipulation that local school boards control instruction.

She never mentions “emanations and penumbras,” but clearly Judge Rappaport, like judicial activists before her, is blessed with a rare talent entrusted to only a select cadre of law school graduates – the ability to interpret words that aren’t there.

In a final flurry of irrationality, Rappaport strikes down the state’s school finance law and orders a new system of funding, but she concludes the order by allowing this “inadequate,” “irrational,” “unconscionable” finance system to continue, pending further action by the Supreme Court.

In announcing the state’s appeal, Gov. Hickenlooper observed: “There are more appropriate venues (than a courtroom) for a vigorous and informed public debate about the state’s spending priorities.”

Yes, and, more rational, too.

Xcel Energy “Breaks Wind” Records for Rate-Payers

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The Denver Post reports:

Early on Oct. 6, Xcel Energy set a world record for electricity from wind power. Between 4 and 5 a.m. that day, 55.6 percent of the electricity consumed by Xcel’s 1 million customers in Colorado came from wind farms dotting the state. 

“We’re proud of that and believe it shows that wind is an important part of the portolio,” said Michelle Aguayo, an Xcel spokeswoman. 

While that seems like a tremendous accomplishment, let’s take a look at what was accomplished, and what it means for Xcel customers.

The record itself is not that impressive. In a recession at 4:00 in the morning, overall electric usage is pretty low. When the economy is humming along at full steam, manufacturers that require lots of electricity often add night shifts, because electricity often costs less at night, and it’s cheaper than building more production capacity. This creates more jobs. But in this economy, it’s a safe bet there ain’t much happening.

October 6 was a high wind day. Portions of I-70 were closed that day from winds. In Denver, the wind uprooted power a light pole, which landed on a light-rail power line,
delaying the trains. Lots of wind combined with a recession produced the record.

Wind energy costs up to 80% more than conventional power production. When Xcel brags that they broke a record for wind power generation, they are really saying that at 4 a.m. they produced high cost energy at a time that was once considered to be the least expensive time of day to buy electricity.

Let’s go a bit deeper in our analysis. Coloradohas a 30% Renewable Portfolio Standard (RPS), meaning 30% of our electricity must come from renewable resources by 2020. The citizens voted in 2004 for a 10% standard, but a “too eager to please” legislature has since raised it twice. Solar and wind devices provide roughly one third of their rated capacities, because the wind doesn’t always blow and the sun doesn’t always shine. A wind farm rated at 100 megawatts will only deliver 33 megawatts. Because they mandated the 30% RPS, we must overbuild renewable generation by nearly three times.

That sounds great, right? Except that there is no way to store the power produced when the wind is blowing for use when it isn’t. Therefore we must have stand-by generation capacity that can meet all our electricity needs.

Coal power can’t easily or efficiently be “cycled”, meaning you can’t turn it off and on to complement wind speeds or sunshine. Some clean coal plants violate clean air  standards because solar and wind are too variable.When they are cycled, their clean status is compromised.

Nuclear power, which has no carbon or other bad emissions, can’t be cycled at all. It can only be used for “baseline generation”, the lowest amount of electricity that gets used during a day. As we approach that 30% standard, nuclear can not be part of the mix, because sometimes all our power must come from renewables. The stand-by generation will all have to be quick cycling sources, such as oil or gas.

In recent years, technology has rapidly advanced to make coal a much cleaner fuel for electricity generation. Now that Colorado and President Obama have decided that coal will be eliminated or minimized as a fuel, there will be no incentive for further advancements in clean coal technology. Meanwhile, advancements in wind, solar, and storage technology are creeping along at a snail’s pace. Government interference is misdirecting research and resources.

Colorado’s Renewable Energy Standard is raising electricity costs when families and
businesses are struggling, costing hardships and preventing job creation. The environmental savings, if there are any, are negligible. Readily available, clean burning fuels are being ignored, or shipped to China where they burn without the benefit of our clean technology, creating global pollution. It’s time to eliminate the arbitrary Renewable Portfolio Standard and let market forces, guided by sensible restrictions on pollution, determine how we will generate electricity for families and the businesses that create jobs.

Thomas Jefferson – TEA Party Activist

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Thomas Jefferson would have been a Tea Party Activist.  However, the Democrat party claims him as their founder.

Jefferson would have denounced the inarticulate and uninformed Occupy thugs that know little or nothing about America and the principles upon which it rests.  The current Democrat Party embraces them.

Thomas Jefferson—unlike some of today’s Democrat leaders—was a very remarkable man…

  • Thomas Jefferson studied previous failed attempts at government.  He understood actual history, the nature of God, his laws and the nature of man.  Jefferson articulated them in the Declaration of Independence.  The Occupy folks and their Democrat supporters today just don’t get it.
  • Jefferson is a voice from the past that can help lead us into a future of limited constitutional government.  A Jeffersonian approach would lead to decision-making informed by history and sound personal and economic principles instead of the failed ideology of social justice and wealth redistribution—or whatever other pseudonym for big government control of our lives might be employed by the Democrat Party.

Thomas Jefferson would be at home at a Tea Party rally and the crowd would applaud his position on almost every issue of today…

“When we get piled upon one another in large cities, as in Europe, we shall become as corrupt as Europe.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“The democracy will cease to exist when you take away from those who are willing to work and give to those who would not.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“It is incumbent on every generation to pay its own debts as it goes.  A principle which if acted on would save one-half the wars of the world.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“I predict future happiness for Americans if they can prevent the government from wasting the labors of the people under the pretense of taking care of them.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“My reading of history convinces me that most bad government results from too much government.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“No free man shall ever be debarred the use of arms.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

“To compel a man to subsidize with his taxes the propagation of ideas which he disbelieves and abhors is sinful and tyrannical.”  Thomas Jefferson

 

Thomas Jefferson said in 1802: “I believe that banking institutions are more dangerous to our liberties than standing armies. If the American people ever allow private banks to control the issue of their currency, first by inflation, then by deflation, the banks and corporations that will grow up around the banks will deprive the people of all property – until their children wake-up homeless on the continent their fathers conquered.”

Try as it might, the Democrat Party can no longer claim that it ascribes to the Jeffersonian principles that lay at its foundation and that of America.

The Democrats claim to be for the folks while at the same time…

  • allowing the FED to ruin the economy by manipulating currency and the free market
  • supporting Wall Street and other bailouts with the hard earned dollars of everyday American workers
  • waging war on small business—especially the small banks that serve small business
  • bypassing the constitution with bureaucratic regulations
  • allowing special interests—especially unions and environmentalists—to make rules that burden everyone and reduce or eliminate job opportunities
  • using public money to experiment in industries eschewed by free markets
  • growing government to a size that makes it unaffordable to its citizens
  • reducing our defense capabilities and risking the safety of every American and especially the safety of our brave young volunteer service men and women

It was a Democrat—John Kennedy—that encouraged Americans to find ways to make the American dream a reality in their own lives without intervention from the government.  It was a Republican—Ronald Reagan—that showed Americans how to do that.  It was a painful partnership between Clinton and Gingrich that moved us closer to the Constitution and a permanently balance budget.  That window to enlightenment slammed shut with the onset of the now famous Bush Derangement Syndrome that poisoned the minds and hearts of Democrats after the 2000 election and intensified after the 2004 election.  (Maybe it would be more accurate to call it the Sore Loser Syndrome.)

It’s time for everyday Americans to speak up boldly.  The Washington elite—regardless of party affiliation—and the Democrat Party in Colorado have lost sight of the most basic American principle and value: the government serves “We the People…” not vice versa.

A few in Congress and in Colorado are attempting to restore the government to its rightful place.  Let’s support them.  Let’s also identify and support candidates that can replace elitists.  And—most of all—lets elect a leader as president that truly embraces the Jeffersonian idea that “bad government results from too much government.”