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November 02, 2011
October 24, 2011
Some new ballot intiatives that may affect your business:
Initiative 300 - Denver Initiative (but affects any business with employees that work at all in Denver) - requires employers to provide paid sick leave
Proposition 103 - statewide proposition - raises taxes on individual and small business income, and increases the sales taxes
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Initiative 300 - Requires paid sick leave for all employees in Denver: Election day this year is Tuesday, November 1st. You should be receiving your mail-in ballot in the mail soon.
Initiative 300 would require that all businesses in Denver provide workers nine days of paid sick leave every year (for businesses of at least 10 employees), and five paid sick days per year (for businesses under 10 employees). Also, it covers workers for out-of-town companies who work in the city for at least 40 hours a year, for the time they’re in Denver.
The list of political names opposing the Denver Paid Sick Leave Ordinance is growing, and quickly. Last week, six more members of the thirteen-person City Council added theirs to a list that already includes Mayor Michael Hancock and Governor John Hickenlooper. To cement their opposition to the toll the ordinance would take on the city, the group recently released a quick but staunch letter against the upcoming election's hottest topic.
The Council members who have come out against Initiative 300 cite recent research through the city attorney's office and its budget management office to indicate the ordinance's approval would add an extra $700,000 to the city's already stretched expenses each year. This, coupled with the "new level of bureaucracy" needed to oversee its enforcement, influenced the council members to come down against initiative 300 in an official capacity. "The city has no existing system in place to implement this ordinance and a number of the city's existing paid sick leave policies are in conflict with those set forth in the Initiative 300," the council members wrote in the letter. It continues: "The Mayor's proposed budget already includes five furlough days for all employees just to balance our budget. Creating additional costs for the City at this time will come at the expense of other services." In its conclusion, the letter urges the citizens of Denver to use its evidence as a reason to say no to Initiative 300 when it comes time for the November 1 election.
Nine University of Denver business professors and lecturers, however, have publicly backed the measure.
But three more major chambers of commerce have recently come out against 300. The Hispanic Chamber of Commerce of Metro Denver, Colorado Black Chamber of Commerce and Colorado Women's Chamber of Commerce held a news conference last Thursday to announce they oppose Initiative 300, and add their names to the Denver Metro Chamber, and the South Metro Denver Chamber, and others. They’re not swayed by supporters’ assertions that people such as working mothers get penalized the most if they can’t take a sick day when they or their kids are ill. “With so many people out of work, we can’t pass a measure that punishes our local businesses for creating jobs,” Hope Marie Sneed, women’s chamber board chairwoman, said in a news release. “It means a mountain of red tape for family-owned business when they are already struggling, and it creates costs for the local shops and merchants we should be supporting.”
Many Denver business owners have said they can’t afford the measure — but the professors who taught many of them say they’re wrong. The nine DU academics argued that giving workers access to paid sick days — a missing benefit for an estimated 41 percent of Denver workers — they say makes a staff healthier and more productive, and improves employee retention.
The opponents of 300 give some of the following reasons against passage -
They say:
• It unfairly targets local, family-owned businesses like day care centers, dentists and restaurants struggling the most in this down economy.
• Other cities examining similar measures, like Seattle, exempted small businesses, but Initiative 300 would apply to all businesses including even a single, part-time employee. Thus, your corner bookstore and your neighborhood market will be hurt the most by 300.
• Initiative 300 makes it harder for businesses to hire staff, and with an unemployment rate of just under 9 percent in Denver, we shouldn't make it harder for people to find work.
• It also threatens Denver's ability to serve our citizens. According to an analysis by the city attorney's office, Initiative 300 requires a new bureaucracy for enforcement, imposing more costs on the city while exempting the state and federal government. All told, Initiative 300 could cost the city nearly $700,000 a year when we already have a systemic budget crisis.
• Finally, buried in Initiative 300's red tape are serious flaws with unintended consequences for Denver's economy. Only Denver voters have a say in whether Initiative 300 passes, but it affects businesses all over our region. As written, anyone who works in Denver, including a plumber from Golden or Castle Rock who takes even one job in Denver is required to comply with the costs and bureaucratic red tape of this initiative.
If you have a business in Denver, or if you have employees that sometimes work in Denver, you need to check out the details of this Initiative. If it passes, it has reporting requirements that will be required by affected employers.
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Proposition 103 - Increases income and sales taxes designed for education:
Proposition 103 would increase taxes in Colorado over the next 5 years by $3 Billion. It would increase the income-tax rate to 5 percent from 4.63 percent and the sales and use levy to 3 percent from 2.9 percent for five years, according to the Legislative Council.
As the United States and the state of Colorado creeps its way into an economic recovery, many states are still looking at how to close budget gaps in future fiscal years, especially now that stimulus funding from the federal government will not be arriving as it did in the last few years.
A group in Colorado, led by a State Senator from Boulder, Rollie Heath, have argued that instead of cutting spending in Colorado to balance the budget – there needs to be an increase in both sales taxes and income taxes on the citizens and small businesses in Colorado. Therefore, they have placed on the Colorado ballot a proposal to raise the income tax by .37% to 5% overall and raise the sales tax from 2.9% to 3%. This is projected to add $3 billion dollars to the state general fund over the next 5 years.
But, is raising taxes in a recession really a good idea?
Colorado voters will decide in November if they want to pay higher taxes to pump almost $3 billion into the state's general fund, and intended to go into the education system.
Raising taxes over five years would slow Colorado’s economy and lead to 30,500 fewer people working by 2016, according to a study by Eric Fruits, president of Economics International Corp. in Portland, Oregon. He was hired by the Colorado-based Common Sense Policy Roundtable, a research organization with several business leaders on its board. “Raising taxes is always going to be like throwing an anchor behind you,” Fruits said. “It will always create a drag on the economy.”
Some business leaders have said Proposition 103 must be defeated because it’s a “jobs killer,” citing an economic study released in April that predicts a higher tax rate will lead to slower job growth in the state.
On the "pro" side of the issue, the proponents of Prop 103 say - Our schools have experienced drastic cuts for three straight years, increasing class sizes and laying off teachers. If we do nothing, schools throughout the state will face a fourth year of cuts. As a result, Colorado kids will face a competitive disadvantage as our investment in preschool, K-12 and higher education will fall farther and farther behind.
They say Proposition 103 is a simple proposal that offers a five-year time out from school cuts. All of the new revenue is designated to go to preschool, K-12 education and higher education. After five years, the rates will return to current levels.
