Audits, EEOC guidelines and more cost companies.
Those who own small businesses in Colorado know how much of a headache the state’s regulatory climate can be. But lawmakers don’t seem to be getting the message.
“We ran three regulatory reform bills this last session that passed the Republican-controlled Senate only to die in the Democratic-controlled House,” says Tony Gagliardi, NFIB state director of Colorado. “We’re out of session now, but we will bring those back again. We brought them back for the last four years, and we’ll keep bringing them back until we solve the problem.”
Gagliardi singles out three main regulatory areas that hurt small businesses the most: the cost of dealing with an assessment or judgment on underreporting sales tax; audits on independent contractors and the misclassification of employees; and EEOC guidelines expanding to businesses with fewer than 15 employees.
All three hurt small businesses’ bottom lines. Owners must bear the burden of paying legal fees when facing the assessment or judgment, or when facing a lawsuit alleging employment discrimination, which Gagliardi says is much easier with the EEOC regulations. With those fees and headaches weighing on the minds of small business owners, they may put off hiring new workers.
“It’s not so much that one regulation is the issue, it’s the multiple layers that we have to contend with,” says Gagliardi. “And it’s an ever-changing landscape.”
Not only are there multiple layers, Gagliardi says, but there are regulations that contradict one another. Small business owners often don’t know what regulations they should be complying with. And while these issues are not unique to Colorado, Gagliardi says the state’s regulations are some of the toughest in the country.
