DENVER — The Colorado Chamber of Commerce is calling for regulatory reform as their latest Colorado Scorecard showed the state declining in several key business metrics.
Loren Furman, the president and CEO of the Colorado Chamber, said they hired a group of economists from outside the state to examine the data.
“The data that they came back with was pretty shocking. What they found is that Colorado is the sixth most regulated state in the nation,” said Furman. “We have over 165,000 regulations implemented through law. And 45% of those regulations are deemed excessive or duplicative.”
Furman said they plan to take the economists’ findings and the Scorecard to the legislature next year, hoping to find some business-friendly solutions from lawmakers.
“How do we start taking a step back on our regulatory climate? And how do we start addressing this burden for businesses?” Furman asked.
She said the recommendations might include audits on current regulations, reducing or eliminating some that they find to be unnecessary, and a cost-benefit analysis.
“How does it impact a company and is it too expensive for a company to operate here if they have to comply with these regulations?” Furman added. “Or could they be modified so that, if it is so cost prohibitive for them to operate here, how do we change that?”
The research and study aren’t yet released to the public, but she said they will be within the next couple of weeks.
Furman said they can track the decline in Colorado’s business rankings to bills passed by the legislature in the past decade.
“We don't want to send the message that businesses have to go elsewhere to a more competitive place to operate,” she said. “And so the legislature should pay attention and should be supporting ideas like this, embracing these types of ideas to improve our economy.”
The Colorado Scorecard, which annually tracks competitiveness metrics to inform the public on the status of Colorado’s economy, showed the state dropped in several rankings, but improved in other areas. The Chamber looked at over 60 different data points in areas and industries across the state and compared it to other states.
Colorado’s best state for business ranking dropped from 11th to 16th, the business tax ranking declined from 21st to 27th, and cost of living ranking fell from 35th to 46th, according to the scorecard. The Chamber said every metric on cost-of-living tracked saw 2024 declines.
Lawmakers did make some attempts to tackle housing affordability in this year’s legislative session, passing some bills pushing for housing near transit lines, allowing more Accessory Dwelling Units, and others. But the issue remains a concern for businesses.
In a 2023 survey of over 150 business leaders across the state, 60% said Colorado’s economy was on the wrong track.
57% of respondents said the new Colorado Family and Medical Leave Insurance Policy was the most costly employment regulation, followed by paid sick leave mandates (27%), complying with wage transparency rules (26%), increased unemployment insurance costs (16%), and increased workers compensation costs (12%).
46% of business leaders polled said greenhouse gas reduction regulations were the most costly environmental regulation, followed by air quality regulations (35%), and backlog or delay of permitting approval from the state (19%).
Furman and the Colorado Chamber expressed concern especially towards the Energy and Environment space.
“When you think about some of our energy companies who have had a really hard time trying to adopt and comply with those new regulations, especially in the oil and oil and gas industry, there are very few oil and gas companies here in the state,” Fruman said. “At one point, I think we had 30, and we now have maybe five to seven major oil and gas companies in the state.”
A more detailed look at the survey can be found here.
Of course, many regulations are implemented for health and safety reasons, but the Colorado Chamber believes there are ways to ease the burden on businesses while maintaining that focus.
But the Scorecard showed some positive rankings as well, including quality of life, poverty levels, and small and emerging business startups. Those all boosted Colorado’s overall competitiveness.
Other sectors like energy, tech, manufacturing, and tourism also showed positive indications, according to the Chamber.
The Colorado Scorecard is part of the Chamber’s 10 year strategic action plan called Vision 2023, aimed at improving the state’s economy by tracking metrics like those in the Scorecard.
Email Senior Reporter Brett Forrest at brett.forrest@koaa.com. Follow @brettforrestTVon X and Brett Forrest News on Facebook.
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