Legislative update for the landscape industry Email
Tuesday, May 24, 2016 01:00 PM

Colorado legislative updateThe Colorado state legislature adjourned Wednesday, May 11th. The 2016 session ended with little progress on issues that lawmakers in both parties claimed were top priorities in January. Dubbed as a ‘do nothing’ session, many of the bills introduced were political messaging bills crafted with the election – and control of certain legislative districts – in mind. In total, the legislature saw 686 bills introduced, with more than half of them garnering bipartisan support. As an industry, we closely watched about 25 bills – fewer than is typical.

The ALCC/GreenCO legislative priorities fall into four basic categories: water policy, business practices, budget and tax policy and infrastructure investment policy.

This session, many of the bills we actively worked dealt with business practices and mandates on companies and employers. We opposed many of them because discretion on human resource policy should be left to the employer, not debated as public policy. We expected a bit of debate on water policy on the heels of the State Water Plan, but there was very little this session, aside from the legalization of residential rain barrels – great news for the urban landscape. We will be involved in the interim Water Resources committee work and expect significant water policy to come from that for the 2017 session.

We are very pleased about two workforce development bills that will be signed by the Governor and that will provide some opportunity for ALCC’s Career Pathways Program to be implemented in school districts.

The final, detailed legislative report from our lobby team can be viewed here . Additionally, you can review our analysis and impacts of the pertinent legislation that was passed into law here

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