Legislative Affairs

The First Regular Session of the Seventy-Third General Assembly will convene on January 13th, 2021. On that day they will be swearing in the new legislators as well as formally elect new leadership. The current plan is to break until February 16th for safety concerns and to allow for the February economic forecast. Governor Polis will wait to give his State of the State once the General Assembly reconvenes in February. Below you will find the legislative priorities for GreenCO for the upcoming 2021 session. 

 

 GreenCO 2021 Legislative Priorities

 

Water 

  • Continue work with state/local agencies on the Colorado Water Plan to ensure conservation, land use planning and sound regulatory development based on science and technology.

  • Work to educate legislators and water policy decision makers on the need for implementation of GreenCO BMPs. 

  • Work with state agencies and the General Assembly on the current drought conditions in Colorado as the state entered into Phase 3 “Full Plan Activation” of the State Drought Mitigation and Response Plan.

  • Work to build a coalition of businesses and like organizations on drought and water issues. 

  • Support legislation that will help fund the Colorado Water Plan. 

 

Industry Regulations and Business Practices

  • Support efforts to find solutions to retainage issues. 

  • Support efforts to build better liability protection for contractors. 

  • Work with business coalition on an arbitration legislation that is brought in the 2021 session. 

  • As FAMLI passed on the 2020 ballot we will stay engaged on any legislation that is introduced to implement FAMLI. 

  • Monitor minimum wage issues and wage protection issues before the legislature. 

  • Support job development legislation that creates opportunity to find and hire necessary work force in Colorado. 

  • Work with business coalition to address proposed anti-growth legislation. 

  • Closely monitor any legislation looking to cut tax expenditures for businesses. 

  • Ensure that “essential” businesses have further protection from COVID liability issues. 

  • Closely monitor any legislation pertaining to Worker’s Compensation. 

 

Infrastructure Funding

  • Infrastructure funding will again be a top priority this year and we will closely monitor any transportation funding legislation and get engaged when necessary.

 

Sales & Use Tax

  • Monitor all legislation related to sales and use tax. 

  • Continue to support the Sales & Use Tax Simplification Task Force.  

  • Continue to support development of uniform set of definitions for sales and use tax. 

 

Pesticide Regulation

  • Oppose any measure to allow for local control when applying pesticides.

  • Oppose non-research based arbitrary bans on pesticides.

  • Closely monitor and oppose any effort to expand pesticide regulatory burden. 

Education

  • Fund vocational and adult education programs for the skilled trades and technical career paths that are drastically understaffed in Colorado’s workforce.

  • Support tax credits for employers who hire workforce from K-12 students, returning military or those unemployed or underemployed and provide technical and/or skills training for such hires.

 

 

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