Arrive early to sign in and get a seat. If you don’t want to testify, please come to provide moral support and critical mass. 

TESTIFY Wed. Jan 27 on Bills that will raise taxes on small business and families. 1:30 pm, Legislative Service Building at 14th & Sherman, room LSB-A, across the street from the capitol.  Also, public hearings on PERA (Public Employee Retirement Assn.) funding begins at noon in the same place. 

Arrive early to sign in and get a seat. If you don’t want to testify, please come to provide moral support and critical mass. 

No tax increases during a recession! DEMS push anti-small business and anti-family legislation without clear advance notice on House Calendar.  This is a deliberate attempt to stifle debate and ram these tax-raising and job-cutting policies through without the public’s attention. All Republicans on House Finance will be opposed.  It is a 6-5 committee; so ONE Democrat vote against can kill a bill.

House Bill 10-1189

Eliminates Sales Tax Exemption on Direct Mail 

House Bill 10-1190

Temporarily eliminates the sales tax exemption on storage, use or consumption of electricity, fuel and other energy products.

 HB 10-1191

Eliminates the sales tax exemption on candy and pop.  By the definition included in this bill, even honey-roasted nuts are candy.

 HB 10-1192

Eliminates sales tax exemption on some software products. 

 HB 10-1193

Requires out of state retailers to collect sales tax on Coloradoan’s purchases. Affects those with a website link to sell online.

 HB 10-1194

Eliminates sales tax exemption on non-essential items such as plastic ware, condiments, napkins, bags and other items.  (When you buy a burger, the packaging will be taxed separately.)

HB 10-1195

Suspends sales tax exemption on products used to care for livestock and crops.

HB 10-1198

Suspends the Alternative Minimum Tax credit.

 HB 10-1199

Reduces net operating loss carryover to $250,000 for businesses.

House Finance Committee

Rep. Joel Judd 303-866-2925 (D-5 Denver)
Rep. Debbie Benefield 303-866-2950 (D-29 Arvada)
Rep. Jerry Frangas 303-866-2954 (D-4 NW Denver)
Rep. Cheri Gerou 303-866-2582 (R-25 Evergreen)
Rep. Daniel Kagan 303-866-2921 (D-3 Denver)
Rep. John Kefalas 303-866-4569 (D-52 Ft. Collins)
Rep. Jeanne Labuda 303-866-2966 (D-1 SW Denver)
Rep. Ellen Roberts 303-866-2914 (R-59 Durango) 
Rep. Ken Summers 303-866-2927 (R-22 Lakewood)
Rep. Spencer Swalm 303-866-5510 (R37 Centennial)
Rep. Brian Delgrosso 303-866-2947 (R-51Loveland)

If you plan to testify, be prepared, to the point & respectful.  No colorful language or insults — NO signs or flags permitted unless you want to stay on the sidewalk outside of the venue.  But, we need people inside to hopefully fill the room that holds 100 and as many as possible to speak.  Since there are 12 bills, people should spread their signing up across the sheets so there are a decent number speaking for each bill.  You can speak about more than one, but it would be better to have several people speak about each rather than the same handful of people speaking about each. These hearings will run late; so consider a “tag-team” approach with a friend who can sign you in early to speak later.

In an editorial Saturday titled “Dispatch health care reform bill”, even the left-leaning Denver Post calls on Colorado’s senators to vote against the measure.  The Post says, “From the wildly improper gifts to senators like Nebraska’s Ben Nelson to this week’s backroom deals for unions, the so-called health care reform emerging from Washington has become bad medicine for America and ought to be rejected. Quickly.”

The editors of the Post lay it out for the senators:

Colorado Sens. Mark Udall and Michael Bennet ought to take a principled stand against the failed reform effort, even if it once held promise.

Bennet went on the record weeks ago saying he would support the bill even if it cost him his job. Well, it probably will.

His hard-line stance may have been noble at the time, but so much has changed with the legislation since then that the bill is now at odds with the stated goals of both Bennet and Udall. We think both senators have more than enough clearance to oppose it and ask for better.

Bennet faces a tough election in November. We understand the pressure Democratic Party leaders have put on him to ensure this stinker of a bill passes, but most Coloradans want an independent leader, and not doing right by Coloradans could be costly at the polls.

We’d like to think Udall, who campaigned as a moderate Democrat, could muster the courage to buck his party and vote against the bill, but we won’t hold our breath.

We couldn’t have said it better ourselves.  Coloradoans can do better by electing people that will actually do the right thing. 

Click here to view the complete editorial.