Legislative leaders gave a peek Tuesday at the fights coming to the Capitol, highlighted by a contentious proposal to reform laws around unionizing in the state, stabs at regulatory reform and efforts to patch a massive budget hole.
Speaking on a panel hosted by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce ahead of the legislative session’s start Wednesday, the lawmakers emphasized a need to make Colorado more affordable while hinting at some of the ideas they’d pursue.
Senate President James Coleman, a Denver Democrat, endorsed the idea of reexamining business regulations and incentive packages designed to lure companies to the state. Senate Minority Leader Paul Lundeen, a Monument Republican, cited Gov. Jared Polis’ recent stunt — in which he took a circular saw to a stack of outdated executive orders on his desk — as inspiration for a renewed effort there.
House Speaker Julie McCluskie, a Dillon Democrat, said the national election results in November showed the working class felt ignored. House Minority Leader Rose Pugliese, a Colorado Springs Republican, specifically called out a need to cut delivery fees and bag fees at retail stores to improve affordability.
Hanging over all the proposals will be a budget hole of more than $600 million that will hamstring most bills with any substantial cost.
The annual chamber event serves as an unofficial start to the 120-day legislative session, with an audience made up of lawmakers, business owners, lobbyists and civic leaders. In addition to the question-and-answer session with legislative leaders, the event also gave chamber leader J.J. Ament a platform to assail a proposed bill aimed at making it easier for unions to collect dues.
Brewing battle over labor rights
The session is set to launch renewed conflict between labor groups and the organized business community as Democratic lawmakers ready that legislation. It would change one sentence in state law that, as written now, makes it harder for unions to fully negotiate their contracts with employers by requiring them to pass a second election.
Though the bill is a priority for several Democratic lawmakers and their labor allies, business groups — including the chamber — are flatly opposed. That position was clear Tuesday morning.
“That is a major upheaval to the compromise that has served Colorado incredibly well for over 80 years,” Carly West, the vice president of government affairs for the Denver chamber, told legislative leaders, before asking them if they supported the proposal.
The four legislative officials were largely noncommittal. Lundeen and Pugliese both said they wanted to see the bill’s language first, though Lundeen said he “disagreed with the concept.” McCluskie, who opened the morning by talking about the need to protect the state’s working class, urged attendees to engage with lawmakers and said it was possible to be both labor- and business-friendly.
McCluskie and Coleman were similarly careful in their responses on the topic in a joint interview with The Denver Post last week.
Warning of “zero” room for spending
Slowing inflation and population growth, along with the rising costs of services the state must provide — chiefly Medicaid coverage for the poorest Coloradans — have left the state with a $600 million-plus budget shortfall.
McCluskie, who chaired the Joint Budget Committee before ascending to the speakership, said that challenge called not just for immediate action, but for a long-term shift in how the state looks at Medicaid spending in particular.
“This is not the overexpenditures of a runaway legislature, this is the changing demographics of our state,” McCluskie said at a news conference after the chamber event. “An older and grayer Colorado is putting much more pressure on long-term care services as well as the primary health care utilization of Medicaid.”
McCluskie said it was premature to lay out specific reforms because legislative staff and members of the budget committee were still working through various ideas.
This year, McCluskie said, lawmakers are being told that their bills have an effective budget of “zero,” given the constraints and lack of capacity for more spending. But there may be room for trade-offs.
Coleman said the tight budget may also mean lawmakers will look to trim some existing programs to avoid cuts in “universally important” areas like education and health care, or to programs that affect overall affordability.
Pugliese and Lundeen, the Republican leaders, see the shortfall as an opening to shrink government overall.
Lundeen, citing his business experience, used the example of layoffs in the private sector resulting in leaner, more efficient operations. He also saw an opening for a “virtuous cycle” of pro-business regulatory changes that could lead to economic growth.
“Let’s get rid of more regulations,” Lundeen said. “The governor’s leading the way on some small stuff. Let’s get the legislature to now go after some of the bigger stuff.”
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