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For the first time, Colorado legislators push forward a bill to boost nuclear energy
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For the first time, Colorado legislators push forward a bill to boost nuclear energy

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance After years of dismissing the idea of promoting nuclear-energy development in Colorado, some legislative Democrats are coming around on it — and late Thursday, they joined with Republicans for the first time to advance a bill that would incentivize the energy source. House Bill 1040 would redefine nuclear energy as a clean energy, which in turn would make nuclear projects eligible for special clean-energy project financing and would allow utilities to include them in their minimum mandatory clean-energy portfolio. It passed the House Energy & Environment Committee by an 8-5 vote after a lengthy hearing and goes next to the full House for debate. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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Liquor and grocery stores are feuding again over who should get to sell what products
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Liquor and grocery stores are feuding again over who should get to sell what products

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Much like a bar regular returning for happy hour, Colorado’s liquor wars are back at the Capitol, beginning this year with another attempt to limit the growth of grocery stores selling a full portfolio of beer, wine and spirits. Senate Bill 33, which cleared its first committee on Feb. 6 and awaits a hearing Friday before the Senate Appropriations Committee, is the first bill this session to pit varying interests in the alcohol-sales sector against each other, but it may not be the last. And while it got bipartisan support in its first vote, it has a long road ahead of it, much like two liquor-focused bills in 2024 that received early backing only to die late in the session despite numerous attempts to amend them to a consensus satisfaction. ...
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Employers say they need more skilled talent, but there’s a disconnect between workers and employers
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Employers say they need more skilled talent, but there’s a disconnect between workers and employers

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance In less than three weeks, Colorado employers and educators will begin what many feel is a long-overdue process of identifying the greatest shortages in skills for in-demand jobs and working in partnership to create career pathways to fill those gaps. As simple as that collaboration may sound on paper, it is an idea that too many business leaders, as well as many K-12 and college officials, say has not germinated due to a lack of communication between the institutions that train the workforce and those who employ it. And the disconnect between those wanting to work and those wanting to hire workers has never been clearer. Colorado had 134,000 job openings late last year — the highest total of any state, according to the Bureau of Labor Stati...
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Supporters of single-payer health care hope third time is charm for advancing study bill
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Supporters of single-payer health care hope third time is charm for advancing study bill

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance For the third year in a row, Colorado Democratic legislators have begun to advance a bill to study the impact of implementing a single-payer health-care system, though this year’s version of the legislation would carry no cost to the state itself. The Senate Health and Human Services Committee on Thursday advanced Senate Bill 45 on a 6-3, party-line vote to the Senate Appropriations Committee. The bill’s supporters include medical professionals, local government leaders and the Colorado PTA, while business groups and the health-insurance industry are heading up the opposition. SB 45, from Democratic Sens. Sonya Jaquez Lewis of Longmont and Janice Marchman of Loveland, tasks the Colorado School of Public Health with analyzing implementation ...
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Despite concern over specific provisions, legislators advance wage-theft bill without changes
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Despite concern over specific provisions, legislators advance wage-theft bill without changes

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Sponsors of a bill to ramp up penalties for businesses committing wage theft promised to make changes to it Thursday but weren’t yet ready to offer specific amendments, leading to a partisan split as the bill advanced out of its first legislative committee. House Bill 1001, authored by House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge and fellow Democratic Rep. Meg Froelich of Greenwood Village, seeks to attack the crime in a different way than their 2024 legislation, which Democratic Gov. Jared Polis vetoed. Rather than focus solely on the construction industry and seek compensation from general contractors when subcontractors fail to pay workers, the new bill takes aim at employers in all sectors, seeking specifically to punis...
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HB25-1005 offers $34M in tax credits to attract Sundance Film Festival to Boulder
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HB25-1005 offers $34M in tax credits to attract Sundance Film Festival to Boulder

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Colorado’s film-incentive program has generated division among legislators since its inception. The state’s effort to attract the Sundance Film Festival to Boulder, however, is getting near-unanimous support. The House Business Affairs and Labor Committee on Wednesday approved the creation of a new incentive tax credit to draw what is arguably America’s most prestigious film festival away from its long-time home in Park City, Utah. Having outgrown the 8,400-person town, the 11-day festival that attracts some 70,000 annual attendees has narrowed its search for a new home to three locations: Salt Lake City (in conjunction with Park City), Cincinnati and Boulder. Under House Bill 1005, sponsored by House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat R...
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Legislative health-care debates commence in the 75th General Assembly
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Legislative health-care debates commence in the 75th General Assembly

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Several health-care bills — including two scheduled for their first hearings this week — are set to reignite the debate this legislative session on whether the benefits of greater coverage mandates are equal to the greater costs they’ll bring. And it won’t be just insurance issues that will occupy legislators’ discussions on health care this year. Regulation of a federal drug-pricing program, Medicaid-generated budget problems and the fate of the state’s largest workers’ compensation insurer all are on the table, causing legislators to have to think deeply about why health-care spending is rising and what impacts they can have on businesses and consumers. On Wednesday, a House committee will discuss a bill that seeks to require health benef...
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Task force on disability rights recommends major changes to Colorado law
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Task force on disability rights recommends major changes to Colorado law

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance Following three months of deliberations, a task force studying the rights of Coloradans with disabilities has softened some recommendations to boost awards in antidiscrimination lawsuits but still offered proposals likely to stir significant business opposition. Among the task force’s recommendations are to let plaintiffs in disability-related antidiscrimination suits seek emotional damages, to replace existing caps on noneconomic damages and to extend to three years the timeline for filing such legal action. The recommendations — along with about 50 less controversial suggestions involving housing accessibility, outdoor recreation and government services — are likely to end up in a bill during this legislative session. During sometimes com...
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Legislators will debate a very different wage-theft bill this year, but opposition remains
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Legislators will debate a very different wage-theft bill this year, but opposition remains

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance After Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a 2024 construction wage-theft-enforcement bill that he said could trip up law-abiding contractors, proponents are back with a follow-up that doesn’t single out one industry — but that may harm many sectors, some business leaders warn. House Bill 1001, sponsored by House Majority Leader Monica Duran of Wheat Ridge and fellow Democratic Rep. Meg Froelich of Greenwood Village, is scheduled for its first hearing Thursday afternoon before the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee. And its compromise efforts already have gotten a shout-out from Polis in his State of the State Address, starting it on much firmer ground than that on which last year’s effort began. A major reason that the bill is getti...
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State grappling with funding insurance enterprise into the future, and solution could be premium fee hike
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State grappling with funding insurance enterprise into the future, and solution could be premium fee hike

By Ed Sealover | The Sum & Substance A Colorado enterprise that offers free health insurance to undocumented immigrants and helps fund the state’s reinsurance program is likely to be short of revenue by 2027, spurring consideration of options that include raising fees on statewide health insurance policies. The Health Insurance Affordability Exchange board will meet at 8 a.m. Friday to discuss how to deal with the situation and how to grapple with the uncertainty around future federal funding. If it elects to pursue a fee increase, such an effort would have to go before the Legislature prior to the May 7 conclusion of its 2025 regular session. READ THE FULL STORY AT THE SUM & SUBSTANCE
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