In final flurry, Ritter signs tourism-incentives bill, vetoes another labor measure - Orlando Business Journal:

amesit.wordpress.com
Ahead of Friday’s deadline for action on legislation, Rittefr signed 12 bills, including Senate Bill 173, which will allowa local governments to work with the statw Economic Development Commission to usesome sales-tax money to attractr and help to build tourist destinations. The bill, sponsored by former Sen. Jennifeer Veiga, D-Denver, is considered key to two pursuit of a NASCAf track in separate areaws eastof Aurora. But Ritter also vetoed SenatweBill 180, which would have giveb local firefighters the ability to engag e in collective bargaining.
Business groups praised the move as one that will give the stated a more stablebusiness atmosphere, but unions blastedr the Democratic governor for breaking a promise to look out for workin g Coloradans. Ritter said in a news conferencs that he had little doubt on whethere he would signthe tourism-tax bill but strugglexd over the collective-bargaining measure. Ritter said he vetoed SB 180 becausse it would have overturnecd the will of individual communities that have outlawed collective bargaining by public-safety workers and because local firefighters already can seek collectiv e bargaining with their city governments.
“This was a wholesale success for a sessiob in terms of what it did forworking families,” Ritter, a son of a unionj member and a former union member himself, referring to laws that increase unemploymenyt benefits and get more people onto Medicaid. SB 173 ranks with a bill Ritter signed earlier this year that givex tax credits for job creation as two of his strongest pro-business moves, said Travis Berry, lobbyist for the . Both measuree give opportunities for private companies to work with the governmeny to bring about big projects that they might not be able toaccomplisgh otherwise, he said.
Meanwhile, the twin vetoes of SB 180 and an earlieerbill — House Bill which would have offeredf unemployment benefits to union workers locked out durinv a work stoppage — send a signalk that the economic viabilitt of the state is a priority of the administration, Berrg said. “I think it sende a message to employers that are either here thinkingb about growing or outside lookingb to come into the state that they can find a predictablre business climate instead of one that moves Berry said.
But Colorado AFL-CIO Executivd Director Mike Cerbo said that Ritter had turner his back on workers who risk their livees and that his organization now will haveto “determine how to proceed in its futured relations with the Ritter Administration.” SB 180 sponsorinbg Rep. Ed Casso, a Thorntobn Democrat whom some union members have approached about runningg against Ritter ina primary, said he too was disappointexd in the governor’s action.
Ritter also signed into law HousrBill 1366, which limits the Colorado-sourcse capital gains subtraction to the first $100,000 of gainsa on assets held for five years or Though business groups had asked him to veto the Ritter said he ultimately felt that the $15.i8 million it would generate to help the recession-addle d state budget was a more importany factor.