News Release--Main Street entrepreneurs walk away with three accomplishments
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tony Gagliardi, Colorado State Director, [email protected]
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, [email protected]
DENVER, Colo., May 11, 2017—The first half of the 2017-2018 session of the Colorado General Assembly gaveled to a close last night, earning a B- grade from the state’s largest and leading small-business association.
“It would have been the greatest session of all had the Legislature piggybacked on the great regulatory and tax reforms coming out of Washington, D.C., but given the politically divided makeup of the House and Senate about all that could have been expected did materialize on a few issues,” said Tony Gagliardi, Colorado state director for the National Federation of Independent Business.
“What President Trump has achieved on the regulatory front could have been complemented beautifully had the House taken the baton handed to it by the Senate, but it instead fell back on business as usual, and needlessly so,” said Gagliardi in reference to Senate Bills 1 and 276.
Another missed opportunity came with the defeat of Senate Bill 181, which would have changed how medical awards are allowed under Colorado court rules. Currently, a claimant can sue a defendant for the entire amount of medical bills. However, no consideration is given to the fact that the medical bills were discounted. If a contractual arrangement between an insurer and provider reduced a $50,000 medical bill to $25,000, a plaintiff is still allowed to sue for the entire $50,000. The cost of health care has been the No. 1 concern of small-business owners across the nation for 30 consecutive years.
On the positive side for small business, Gagliardi point to three things of benefit for the mom-and-pop enterprises lining the Main Streets of Colorado.
- Small businesses will now be allowed a statewide tax credit that will refund personal property taxes paid by businesses to local governments on the first $18,000 worth of equipment that they own. The amount of the current exemption is $7,300.
- The creation of a sales and use tax simplification task force (House Bill 1216) to study streamlining collection and reimbursement between the state and local governments, and between the state and home rule jurisdictions. Colorado is in the top four states in the country known for having the most complicated and inefficient sales tax collection and remittance process. Currently, Colorado maintains over 700 taxing districts. The task force will examine issues such as uniform definitions of taxable items and a single point of collect and remittance of sales and use taxes collected.
- A measure (Senate Bill 112) clarifying the General Assembly’s intent when it enacted a dispute resolution process in 1985 to address a situation when a taxpayer paid sales and use tax to one local government when it should have instead paid that disputed amount to a different local government. A recent court case applied the statute of limitations to this dispute resolution process, resulting in the taxpayer having to pay the disputed amount twice to two different local governments.
With 350,000 dues-paying members nationwide, including 7,000 in Colorado, NFIB is the nation’s largest and leading small-business association. You can follow NFIB on Twitter, NFIB_CO, or on its web page, www.nfib.com/colorado.
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For more than 70 years, the National Federation of Independent Business has been the Voice of Small Business, taking the message from Main Street to the halls of Congress and all 50 state legislatures. NFIB annually surveys its members on state and federal issues vital to their survival as America’s economic engine and biggest creator of jobs. NFIB’s educational mission is to remind policymakers that small businesses are not smaller versions of bigger businesses; they have very different challenges and priorities.
National Federation of Independent Business/Colorado
1580 Logan St. Suite 520
Denver, CO 80203
303-831-6099
www.nfib.com/colorado
Twitter: @NFIB_CO
