Governor’s Issue Mash Up

Affordable Housing and Water Crisis Leverage for Climate Agenda

Leveraging against the crisis in affordable housing and water across Colorado, Governor Jared Polis will converge the issues with key agenda items driving his climate change agenda to usurp long standing local control of transportation, land use and growth.

Expect to see one large bill proposal, still in formation, that mashes together state mandated requirements for higher densities, transit utilization, water conservation, stricter building codes, and ‘smart growth’ requirements. The Colorado Municipal League and Colorado Counties Inc joins the NCLA in bracing for the drop of the measure being crafted behind closed doors.

The Governor’s office with the Colorado Departments of Transportation (CDOT), Local Affairs (DOLA), Natural Resources (DNR) and the Colorado Energy Office are converging their authorities and expertise to craft the multi-faceted measure.

Slew of Labor Issues Drop on Business
Fair Workweek Employment Standards. Job Application Fairness Act. Ensure Equal Pay For Equal Work. Additional Uses Paid Sick Leave. Employer Notice Of Income Tax Credits. Unemployment Compensation Dependent Allowance.

Despite the positive names and bill titles, the NCLA Board of Directors voted to oppose each of measures that will have detrimental economic effect on employers if passed. NCLA joins with our partners in the business community in opposing the bills that do the following:

HB 1118: Fair Workweek Employment Standards: (OPPOSE) Requires restaurants, retail and others to pay employees “predictability pay when changes are made in their work schedule, rest shortfall pay when they don’t have enough rest between shifts, retention pay if work hours are given to a new employee without first offering to them, and minimum weekly pay equal to 15% of average weekly hours. The NCLA is opposed to this measure as a significant overreach into the employer management of his business and operations with employees.

SB 58: Job Application Fairness Act. (MONITOR) SB 58 prohibits employers from inquiring about a prospective employee’s age, date of birth, and dates of attendance at or date of graduation from an educational institution on an employment application.

SB 105: Ensure Equal Pay For Equal Work. (MONITOR) As a follow up to the 2021 Equal Pay for Equal Work, SB 105 mandates a number of other requirements upon employers in their hiring and job posting practices including requiring employers to provide specific information to all employees regarding the candidate selected for the each job and promotional opportunities within a company.

SB 17: Additional Uses Paid Sick Leave. (OPPOSE) The bill mandates the expansion of the use of paid sick leave to allows an employee to use accrued paid sick leave when the employee needs to care for a family member whose school or place of care has been closed due to inclement weather, loss of power, loss of heating, loss of water, or other unexpected occurrence or event that results in the closure of the family member’s school or place of care. NCLA opposes the mandated expansion of eligible reasons for taking paid sick leave as it creates undue burden upon employers when most employers are agreeable on case by case basis to certain circumstances for leave.

HB 1006: Employer Notice Of Income Tax Credits. (OPPOSE) The bill requires an employer to provide to its employees written notice of the availability of federal and state earned income tax credits, federal and state child tax credits, and any additional content that the department of revenue prescribes. NCLA Board member Ben Aste testified on behalf of the NCLA in opposition to HB 1006 last week.

HB 1078: Unemployment Compensation Dependent Allowance. (OPPOSE) The bill creates a dependent allowance for an individual receiving unemployment compensation for each of the eligible individual’s dependents equal to $35 per dependent per week, and increases annually for inflation if necessary. NCLA opposes the bill as additional financial pull upon the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund will prolong or threaten the imposition of the UI Premium Surcharge on employers to restore post-COVID solvency of the fund.

NCLA Tracking Report
On a bi-weekly basis, the NCLA Board reviews and considers its position on pending legislation. See the NCLA 2023 Legislative Tracking Report for the list of bills, thus far introduced, in which the NCLA is engaged.