Businesses Should Get Their Say Regarding Impact, Says Mitchell

There are so few bills a conservative can actually like out of the hundreds of bills proposed during the 120-day legislative session in Denver, but this one caught my eye.

Today, the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee hears Senator Shawn Mitchell’s bill 12-080, entitled “Concerning Notices of Reported Business Fiscal Impacts.”  You may know that this committee has a nickname:  The Kill Committee – where the Democrat majority in the Senate sends bills to die.  But we can still be hopeful.  This bill takes us in the right direction.

Currently when a bill is offered in the General Assembly, if there is a fiscal impact to a governmental body, there must be a fiscal note accompanying the bill that details what that fiscal impact is.

Senator Mitchell’s 12-080 requires a 5-day period following the introduction of new legislation or the notice of proposed rule-making, during which business may make comments regarding the business fiscal impact.  Following that 5-day period, Legislative Council prepares a notice of reported business fiscal impact.  That notice must accompany the fiscal note on a bill.  In rule making, the notice goes to the executive director of the department promulgating the rule change, and will be posted on the Legislative Council website.

If passed, will our legislators take into account that the bills they are voting on will financially impact businesses?  Again, we can be hopeful.

The only wonder is:  Why isn’t it obvious to a legislator to consider the impact on business when they pass laws and regulations?  It is the least they can do when they are supposed to derive their just powers from “the consent of the governed.”