She moved her company to Colorado: Seven months later she decided to leave

By Jen Schumann | Rocky Mountain Voice

Heather Florio didn’t move her company to Colorado for a short stay.

When she arrived in early 2025, she thought she was putting down roots.

“We came here… at the beginning of January, 2025 with anticipation of this being our permanent home.”

About seven months in, she said the company was having to leave.

“We found out that some laws had changed here in the state of Colorado,” Florio said. “Specifically regarding tax thresholds. We’re looking at double the amount of taxes if we stay here. We are unfortunately having to leave my home state.”

Florio described that decision in a video from the Southern Colorado Women’s Chamber of Commerce, which was shared with RMV by the Colorado Chamber.

Florio isn’t the only one making that call.

The Colorado Chamber Foundation’s 2025 Relocations Tracker documents 27 companies that left, relocated key operations or chose to grow elsewhere last year—the highest single-year figure in the report. Since 2019, the tracker identifies 98 such moves or missed opportunities tied to more than 13,600 jobs when data was available.

The Chamber says regulation is a major factor.

“Regulatory costs are clearly the top reason businesses say they won’t invest in the state,” said Cynthia Eveleth-Havens, chief strategy officer and senior vice president of communications for the Colorado Chamber, pointing to findings from the Chamber’s 2025 business survey.

That survey found 37 percent of employers cite regulatory burden as a primary concern, while another 21 percent say other states offer more favorable business climates.

Eveleth-Havens said the issue isn’t tied to any one law.

“We didn’t become the 6th most regulated state from any one particular regulation or policy—we believe it’s the pure volume of these regulations that are creating too much complexity for employers.”

The sentiment has been shifting for several years.

In 2022, 53 percent of business leaders said Colorado’s economy was headed in the wrong direction. That rose to 60 percent in 2023 and 67 percent in 2025.

And it’s not just talk. It’s showing up in the decisions companies are making. The Chamber counted 22 companies that left or shifted operations in 2024. It counted a total of 27 in 2025. 

Eveleth-Havens said the known cases may only tell part of the story.

“We believe this report is only the tip of the iceberg.”

What business owners describe on the ground doesn’t point to a single pressure point.

For Florio, it was tax thresholds.

For others, the strain shows up in different ways.

“As we keep raising those minimum wage rates, it affects all of us in the restaurant industry,” said Merle Taylor, who works in finance and HR for a large Colorado Springs catering company. “We do have those tipped employees.”

Taylor also pointed to restrictions that limit revenue streams common in other states.

“Most caterers in the country are making money off of liquor revenue, and that is not something that is allowable in the state of Colorado.”

Construction leaders described another set of challenges.

“What impacts our industry has been labor laws, the uncommitment of our lawmakers to reform construction defects, and of course the impact of the greener energy goals that we have seen over the last decade,” said Diane Miller of Art C. Klein Construction.

Some policies, they say, are written with one part of the state in mind.

“Statewide policies must reflect regional realities,” said Christine Contreras of Gray Matter Construction. “Far too often, construction-related laws are written for the Front Range metro areas… without an understanding of the economic conditions that we face here in El Paso County.”

Others pointed to how those decisions are made.

“As a business owner, you always want to comply with the law,” said Tammy Cameron. “But sometimes what the legislature ends up doing is using a sledgehammer when a scalpel may be much more effective.”

The Chamber’s report also includes data on publicly traded companies. Colorado had 174 SEC-reporting headquarters in 2022. That dropped to 166 in 2023, 146 in 2024—and 140 in 2025.

When Colorado companies relocated, expanded elsewhere or picked another state for growth, Texas appeared most often, followed by California, Arizona, North Carolina and Florida.

A spokesperson for TTEC Holdings, which relocated its headquarters to Texas, cited a “business-friendly environment, strong economy, skilled talent pool, and dynamic tech and innovation ecosystem.”

It’s not just metro areas feeling the shift.

In November 2025, three Nebraska Tri-State members—two public power districts and one rural electric membership association—filed withdrawal notices to leave a Colorado-based power supplier. According to reporting by the Denver Business Journal, the members cited “increasing costs related to complying with regulations in the State of Colorado and forecasted rate increases.”

After years of complaints from employers, lawmakers and business groups are beginning to act.

A new law, Senate Bill 25-306, requires performance audits of the air pollution control division and the division of unemployment insurance to examine whether those programs are operating effectively and efficiently.

Another proposal, Senate Bill 26-137, would require agencies to review their rules at least every five years and examine whether they are outdated, redundant or creating burdens without enough public benefit.

Supporters say it’s about bringing some discipline back into a system that, in their view, has grown too complicated for its own good.

“Colorado’s regulatory environment is becoming more and more complex, making it harder for employers to grow and hire workers,” said Colorado Chamber President Loren Furman.

For some businesses, those efforts may come after decisions have already been made.

Back in southern Colorado, Florio brought it back to what it means inside her business.

“That directly affects my pocket,” she said. “It affects what I can do for my employees, what I can pay my employees.”

Her company came to Colorado expecting to stay. That plan didn’t hold.