Statement on Tomorrow’s State-of-the-State Speech

Date: January 08, 2020

Colorado’s small-business owners are hoping to hear a few things from Gov. Jared Polis

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Tony Gagliardi, Colorado State Director, [email protected],
or Tony Malandra, NFIB, [email protected]

DENVER, Jan. 8, 2020—Gov. Jared Polis will give the state-of-the-state speech of his career, tomorrow, January 9, and the ears of Colorado’s small-business owners will be attuned to a few things they’d like to hear.

“We realize the governor, or any governor for that matter, has various constituencies to consider in outlining his policies and vision for the state, but we hope he keeps a hugely important one in mind: the small-business owners of the state who employ more than a million Coloradans,” said Tony Gagliardi, Colorado state director for NFIB, the state’s and nation’s leading small-business advocacy association.

Gagliardi listed three top issues of small-business concern it would be good to hear from the governor on:

  • Making Colorado a less regulatory burdensome place to do business in
  • Acknowledging the difficulty the state’s own task force has had in coming up with a paid family leave policy
  • And slamming the brakes on runaway lawsuits.

“Given the constituency that helped the governor get elected, I’m not expecting him to emulate Idaho Gov. Brad Little, who made it his top priority and succeeded in making his state the least regulation-burdened in the nation, or borrowing an idea from Arizona Gov. Doug Ducey in having occupational licenses acquired in another state equally valid in his, but Governor Polis does have small-business roots and has to know a few things that will help Main Street enterprises.

“He must also know that 73% of small-business owners already offer paid time off and that the federal Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 offers some tax credits to help with providing paid time off. Last year’s failure by the Colorado General Assembly to pass Senate Bill 188 and subsequent inability of a special task force created on paid leave to come up with anything cohesive should be evidence enough that either much more time is needed to study the issue or it should be abandoned. Fat chance of the latter happening because paid leave is a political issue not one inviting of practical policy discussions.

“It would be great to hear the governor say something about legal reform aimed at redressing real grievances, not designed to enrich lawyers through such increasingly common practices as drive-by lawsuits or private rights of action. A court of law should be a place of adjudication not a cash cow for lawyers filing of frivolous lawsuits.”

NFIB Colorado will have further comment after the governor’s speech.

Keep up with the latest Colorado small-business news at www.nfib.com/colorado or by following NFIB on Twitter @NFIB_CO or on Facebook @NFIB.CO

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NFIB is the voice of small business, advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit www.nfib.com/Colorado.

NFIB Colorado
1700 Lincoln Street, 17th Floor
Denver, CO 80203
303-860-1778
www.nfib.com/colorado
Twitter: @NFIB_CO
Facebook: NFIB.CO

 

 

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