A House committee Monday night approved a bill that would significantly slash interest rates on payday loans, cutting out part of the bill that would have put the issue before Colorado voters, The Denver Post reports. Previous attempts to put stricter limits on payday lenders have failed in recent years amid bipartisan opposition. But with some key opponents now out of the legislature, supporters are girding for battle anew.

A bill to strictly limit the inclusion of prime agricultural land in urban renewal authorities got its first hearing in the Senate this week, but HB 1107 is still a work in progress and will get another hearing on Monday, the Fort Morgan Times reports. The Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on Wednesday took testimony on the bill sponsored by Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora. Due to time constraints, the committee delayed action on amendments and a vote on the bill until Monday.

General Motors said Friday it will send letters to more than 600 dealers it earlier planned to drop, telling them they can continue to sell GM vehicles, The Denver Business Journal reports. GM, in a statement on its website, didn’t name the dealerships but said it had reviewed claims for reinstatement from 1,100 dealerships and made its choices from there.

Chrysler’s move to award new Colorado franchises after shutting down existing dealers is drawing fire, The Denver Post reports. A handful of Colorado Chrysler dealerships that received shutdown notices last year have seen their territory awarded to competitors before they had a chance to appeal their closures.

General Motors officials argued their case Thursday against a bill in the Colorado legislature that they say would hinder the carmaker’s return to profitability, The Denver Post reports. The bill would require GM and Chrysler to make special accommodations to Colorado auto dealers that were involuntarily shut down last year following the bankruptcy filings of GM and Chrysler.

By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Lawmakers are trying to stop the so-called “gift that keeps on taking” by passing a bill that would crack down on gift cards sold by businesses in Colorado.
The Colorado Senate Wednesday gave initial approval to Senate Bill 155, which would prohibit businesses from charging fees on gift cards they issue and allow consumers to receive cash back from a business when their card balance goes below $5. Sen. Lois Tochtrop, D-Thornton, the bill’s sponsor, believes the measure would put money back into consumers’ pockets and even the playing field between stores and their customers.
“When you buy a gift card for $25, it should be worth $25,” she said in a statement. “This bill protects Colorado consumers from being charged hidden fees and prevents them from becoming victims.”
But the Colorado Retail Council, the non-profit that represents much of the Colorado retail business community, says the bill’s cash back provision would require expensive accounting measures for local retailers. CRC President Christopher Howes pointed out that gift cards are not ATM cards, and that only two other states — Maine and California — have enacted laws similar to those being proposed by SB 155.
“We just wish the legislators would focus on the weighty issues that are facing them instead of making up an answer to a problem that doesn’t exist,” said Howes.
According to the “Wall Street Journal,” unclaimed gift cards amount to roughly $6.8 billion in the United States annually. Gov. Bill Ritter has thrown his support behind Tochtrop’s bill, saying in a statement late last year that “it’s time to stand up for Colorado consumers and put an end to gift card fees and penalties.”
The bill’s House co-sponsor Debbie Benefield, D-Arvada, added that gift cards should be a gift to the person receiving them and not a gift to the retailer.
“This legislation is critical when it comes to protecting Colorado consumers,” she said in a statement last December. “Gift cards are given to our loved ones with the best intentions, and it’s important we make sure they don’t become the gift that keeps on taking.”
However, Howes said that none of the retailers represented by CRC charge so-called hidden fees for issuing gift card or place expiration dates on the cards. He argued that people worried about getting less than $5 back from a gift card, or any of the other provisions addressed by SB 155, should get loved ones cash instead of gift cards. But he added that “most people find gift cards very convenient and they’re wildly popular, so we don’t understand why government is getting involved.”
The Senate will have to approve the bill one more time before the bill is sent to the House. The bill passed on a 4-3 vote out of the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee last week.

Distributed by Colorado Capitol Reporters

Berry writes in The Denver Post, “We cannot think of a worse time to increase taxes on employers who are struggling to emerge from the recession. We remain perplexed, therefore, that many Democratic legislators, who control both the House and the Senate, ignored or dismissed employers’ sincere objections to the tax bills, given the evidence to the contrary.”

General Motors Co. is launching a $60,000 radio and print ad campaign against a bill aimed at helping Colorado dealerships terminated by GM and Chrysler Group LLC, Associated Press reports. The bill would require carmakers to reimburse the dealers for upgrades they were required to make in the past five years. Some upgrades cost millions of dollars. The dealers also would get a right of first refusal if the manufacturers later award another franchise nearby.

Two proposed cuts in Colorado’s business personal property tax and an attempt at the largest regulatory reform in state history all died at the hands of a Senate committee Wednesday afternoon, the Denver Business Journal reports. The setbacks were not unexpected, especially on the property tax measures. But they represented more losses for a business community that already was defeated in its battle to stop the elimination of a number of tax exemptions earlier this week.

The Chieftain writes about HB10-1190, “Rep. McFadyen was as shameless in her vote as she is clueless on how business works. She said, ‘It’s not all on the Legislature whether they stay in business,’ as if what the Legislature does has no effect on the business community. Then came the real corker when she called on Roman Abramovich, a wealthy major stockholder in the Russian Evraz Group which owns Rocky Mountain Steel, to throw in his own money to keep the plant afloat.”