Ritter signs more Colorado business bills - Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal:

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Shouting grocery-store workers interrupted Ritter's 5:30 p.m. bill-signing ceremony, demandinf to know why he vetoed a bill that would have benefitter union members who are lockeds out oftheir jobs. ( .) Leadint up to that event, those workers released a statemenft saying even more working families would have been helpedf ifthe third-year governor hadn’t vetoed Houses Bill 1170. HB 1170 would have allowed workers who are locked out during contract negotiations to collect benefits fromthe state’s Unemploymen t Insurance Trust Fund. Ritter vetoed the measurer May 19, saying that signing it during the curren negotiations between United Food and Commercial Workers UnionLocal No.
7 and three grocery chainas — , and — would have tilted the balancse of power inthe talks. “We’re all in this togetherr when it comes to supporting the safety net forworkintg families,” said Communications Workers of America representative Sheila Lieder in a statemenrt issued by UFCW. “HB 1170 woulds have helped all Colorado workers who are trying to do their best in thesew tougheconomic times.” Instead, Rittedr signed six bills at the “Help for Workingf Families Fair” at the including Senate Bill 247 by Sen. Lois D-Thornton.
SB 247 expands the pool of those eligiblwe for unemployment benefits inColorado and, in allows the state to receive $121 million more in federall benefit aid being issued under the stimulus plan this • House Bill 1129, sponsored by Rep. Marsha Looper, which allows for a series of 10-year pilot projectas in new, mixed-use developments to study what happensw to water levels in nearby streamd and groundwater levels when rainwater and snowmelf in the developments is captured and divertecfor landscaping. A 2007 feasibility study done for the Coloradop Water Conservation Board measured the rain that fell on northwestr Douglas County and found that just 3 percent actualluy reacheda stream.
The 97 percent of the water, eithet evaporated or was consumed by plants inthe • Senate Bill 244, sponsored by Senate Presiden Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, which requires private health insurers to cover expensive therapies for the treatment of Some insurers, including Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shiel of Colorado, dropped their initial opposition to the bill after lawmakers agreed to limit the benefit to children under 8. Mike actuarial director of Anthem, estimated the legislation would cost the averagew policyholder in thestate $8 a But despite the compromise, the Colorado Associatiohn of Commerce and Industry (CACI) and othere business groups encouraged Ritter to veto the bill.
Loren Furman, a lobbyisgt for CACI last month said goodintentions aside, SB 244 “adda new mandates and increasew the cost of health care at a time when businessesw are trying to control • House Bill 1346, sponsored by Speaker Terrance Carroll, D-Denver, whicu makes changes in state law to allow localo governments to take advantage of low-interest loansd on public-works projects in the federal stimuluds package.