Laura Rios - Owner

Robin Freeman - Owner

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Larae Evans - Owner

Below are some pieces of legislation that have been introduced at the State Capital that will have an impact on businesses that we think you should be aware of. We will update you on these and others that are still to be introduced over until the session concludes in May.

Replenishing the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund: All employers pay into the fund to provide unemployment benefits. Colorado’s unemployment levels spiked in early 2020 and caused the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to become deeply insolvent. Currently, the Trust Fund is about $2 billion down from its pre-pandemic balance. The deficit triggers a solvency surcharge in 2023 and shifts rates to the highest calculation until the fund is replenished. Universally, there’s a desire to use federal recovery funding to backfill part of the Trust Fund. Gov. Jared Polis proposed providing a $600 million backfill to assist small businesses in paying down this debt. A statewide coalition of Chambers, including the Evergreen Chamber, and trade associations signed a letter of support advocating for this investment. This effort is widely supported among all at the Capital and this will be resolved during the budgeting process.

During the public health emergency of the pandemic, there was a whistleblower policy enacted to allow workers to raise workplace health and safety concerns. This bill would make this policy permanent.

This bill has passed out of committee and is waiting in Senate Appropriations

The "SALT Parity Act" (act) was enacted in 2021 and, for income tax years commencing on or after January 1, 2022, the act allows pass-through entities to elect to pay state income tax at the entity level, which allows the entity to claim an unlimited deduction at the federal level for state and local taxes paid. While this election reduces federal taxable income for the pass-through entity, it does not reduce Colorado taxable income under current law.

The bill makes provisions of the act retroactive to January 1, 2018.

This bill has passed the Senate Finance Committee and awaits in Senate Appropriations

Concerning measures to promote the governance of special districts, and, in connection therewith, requiring greater disclosure of developer-affiliated board activity, requiring processes to facilitate resident representation on special district boards, and extending the powers of initiative and referendum to the electors of special districts.

This bill has been referred to Senate Local Government committee and will be heard on March 1

The bill replaces an existing income tax deduction for expenses incurred by employers when providing alternative transportation options to employees with a refundable income tax credit of 50% of such expenses for such employers. The credit is allowed for income tax years beginning on or after January 1, 2023, but before January 1, 2033.

This bill has passed the House committee and awaits in House Appropriations

The bill prohibits an employer from taking adverse action against an employee, including an applicant for employment, who engages in the use of:

An employer is permitted to impose restrictions on employee use of medical or retail marijuana under specified circumstances.

This bill has been sent to the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee

This bill would require all developers of buildings of 25,000 sq feet or more to require a specific number of parking spaces for electric vehicles and wiring to add more of these spaces in the future.

This bill has been referred to the House Energy & Environment Committee.

A fundamental reason that the trail is being reconstructed is that in 2016 the support walls that hold up the trail and the railing that keeps people from falling into the Lake began failing. EPRD

devised a temporary repair to reopen the trail but a permanent solution was needed. Another primary reason to reconstruct the Evergreen Lake North Trail is to significantly improve safety,

accessibility, connectivity, and conditions for walking and biking along this critical entryway to Downtown Evergreen and primary corridor for active transportation in the area, as recommended by the 2015 Evergreen Trails Master Plan based on public input.

There are two parts to this question -- what is the traffic detour pattern and what are the anticipated impacts. The traffic detour pattern is shown in the map below. It envisions one-way

eastbound traffic on SH 74 between Upper Bear Creek Rd and CR 73. Two-way traffic would remain on all other roadways including SH 74 through Downtown Evergreen. Westbound SH 74 traffic in the detour area only -- between CR 73 and Upper Bear Creek Rd -- would be detoured to Upper Meadow Dr/Douglas Mountain Rd to access SH 74 near Christ the King Church.

The anticipated traffic impacts of the proposed detour were evaluated during the final design process. Traffic operations are anticipated to remain at acceptable levels on SH 74 and CR 73

during peak times. In order to ensure orderly and safe traffic flow at the Meadow Dr/SH 74 intersection, we have called for active flaggers to be present during peak times to facilitate left and right turns from Meadow Drive onto SH 74. Traffic patterns will be tracked and evaluated during the project, and adjustments may be made to maintain the acceptable traffic operations should traffic issues develop during the detour period. This process will be part of the construction contractors’ contract and responsibility.

JC-73 Corridor Study Preliminary Design:

(Buffalo Park Road to Plettner Lane) Evergreen.