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, demanding to know why he vetoe a bill that would have benefitted union members who are locke out oftheir jobs. ( .) Leading up to that those workers released a statement sayingh even more working families would have been helped ifthe third-yeat governor hadn’t vetoed House Bill 1170. HB 1170 wouled have allowed workers who are lockefd out during contract negotiations to collectg benefits fromthe state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund. Ritter vetoed the measure May 19, saying that signingg it during the current negotiations betweenm United Food and Commercial Workers UnionLocal No.
7 and thred grocery chains — , and would have tilted the balancw of power inthe talks. “We’re all in this togethert when it comes to supporting the safety net forworkingg families,” said Communications Workerse of America representative Sheila Liederr in a statement issued by “HB 1170 would have helped all Colorado workers who are tryingb to do their best in these tough economic Instead, Ritter signed six bills at the “Help for Workingg Families Fair” at the Capitol, including Senatse Bill 247 by Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton.
SB 247 expandsx the pool of those eligible for unemployment benefits inColorado and, in turn, allows the state to receiv e $121 million more in federall benefit aid being issued under the stimulus plan this • House Bill 1129, sponsored by Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, which allows for a series of 10-yea pilot projects in new, mixed-use developmentsa to study what happens to waterf levels in nearby streams and groundwater levels when rainwater and snowmelt in the developments is captured and divertedcfor landscaping.
A 2007 feasibility study done for the Coloradoi Water Conservation Board measured the rain that fell on northwestf Douglas County and found that just 3 percent actually reachesa stream. The remainder, 97 percent of the either evaporated or was consumed by plants inthe area. • Senate Bill 244, sponsored by Senatde PresidentBrandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, whicn requires private health insurers to cover expensive therapies for the treatmentg of autism. Some insurers, including Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shielfof Colorado, dropped thei r initial opposition to the bill after lawmakerz agreed to limit the benefit to children undetr 8.
Mike Polakowski, actuarial director of Anthem, estimated the legislatiojn would cost the average policyholder in thestates $8 a month. But despite the compromise, the Coloradlo Association of Commerce and Industry and other business groupsw encouraged Ritter to veto the Loren Furman, a lobbyis for CACI last month said good intentions aside, SB 244 “addz new mandates and increases the cost of healthg care at a time when businesses are tryingg to control costs.” • House Bill sponsored by Speaker Terrance Carroll, which makes changes in state law to allow localk governments to take advantage of low-interest loan on public-works projects in the federak stimulus package.