Gov. Jared Polis struck down a half-dozen bills to close this year’s legislative session. But a revived proposal to fight wage theft — potentially with his backing — shows that the defeats aren’t necessarily permanent.
House Majority Leader Monica Duran, a Wheat Ridge Democrat, was one of the prime sponsors of House Bill 1008. The much-touted bill sought to hold general contractors liable for wage theft committed by subcontractors. Polis, a fellow Democrat, called wage theft “a deplorable crime” in his veto letter in May but struck down the measure because, he wrote, its “novel” enforcement mechanism wouldn’t punish the real wrongdoers.
Duran said she and the coalition backing the measure started working on a redux in June, just weeks after Polis’ veto. The details are still being ironed out as the bill is being drafted, she said, but she struck a hopeful tone after the earlier attempt was struck down.
“At the end of the day, this is about workers and workers getting paid for the work that they do — and making sure we do everything we can to help them, support them and elevate them,” Duran said.
It’s not yet clear how many more of the six vetoed bills will come back when lawmakers return to the Capitol for the next legislative session on Jan. 8. Some sponsors of vetoed bills are leaving office. Others may be juggling other priorities as they decide on the five bills they’re allowed to introduce each year. And some are watching how other regulatory action plays out or still finding a way to work through the governor’s objections.
“No one likes to get a bill vetoed. I put my heart and soul into these. We all do,” said Duran, adding: “But I also think there’s great opportunity when things like this happen.”
In a statement, Polis spokesperson Shelby Wieman highlighted the collaboration on the wage-theft bill as proof that vetoes don’t have to be the end of bills.
“As part of the veto letters, the Governor provided a pathway for discussions to continue on each issue,” Wieman wrote. “This was true, for example, of the wage theft legislation last year, where he very much agreed with the objectives of the legislation but had specific concerns about particular provisions. He’s pleased that his team and the sponsors from last year have worked in good faith to bring back a strong proposal this coming year to take on and reduce wage theft.”
Lawmakers can also override vetoes with a two-thirds majority vote, but they have an extremely narrow timeline to do so, and only for bills vetoed before the end of session, making it a very rarely exercised power.
In addition to the wage-theft bill, Polis struck down two other labor-related bills. House Bill 1260 would have prohibited mandatory attendance of workers for anti-union seminars and other political meetings at work, a rule that Polis called “broad” and “unworkable.” House Bill 1307 would have increased the requirements for grant-funded ventilation upgrades in schools, such as for air conditioning; Polis called them “onerous.”
The governor said he agreed with the concepts of both but took umbrage at the details.
Sen. Jessie Danielson, a Wheat Ridge Democrat who sponsored the measures, called the vetoes “a real blow to workers.” She’s not planning to bring those specific measures back, however, because she’s directing her energies to another recently announced labor bill that would remove a unique barrier to Coloradans unionizing their workplaces.
The state requires unions to clear a second election before they can negotiate union dues and fees. Two votes mean twice as much time for companies to hassle workers, while putting an undue burden on the nascent union, Danielson said. Removing the provision, she said, will make it easier for Colorado workers to form unions.
“To me, the passage of the Worker Protection Act becomes even more important, given (that) the workers’ rights bills that we passed through the legislature did not become law,” Danielson said, referring to the name of the proposed bill. “We can show the rest of the country that Colorado stands up for working people with the passage of this new bill.”
That proposal is also shaping up to be a fight under the Gold Dome. Wieman said Polis was “leery” of the proposal, while Danielson noted that early support was already expanding beyond labor organizations to include community service, reproductive rights and religious organizations.
Danielson, who sponsored four of the six vetoed bills from the last session, plans to revisit one that would have required background checks for coaches and overnight chaperones. But she’s not sure if that will happen during the upcoming session or the next.
One of that bill’s sponsors, Rep. Jennifer Parenti, decided not to seek reelection last summer and won’t return to the legislature. House Bill 1080 had aimed to protect children by making sure abusers aren’t placed in positions of trust on youth sports teams.
“I felt really strongly about that bill,” Danielson said. “There’s still no defensible reason that bill was vetoed.”
In his veto letter, Polis pointed to a companion bill that he did sign after the session. It requires youth coaches to undergo mandatory reporting training and requires a code of conduct, among other things, to protect children. The background-check requirement, he wrote in his veto letter, would have put “unrealistic and counterproductive expectations” on coaches and chaperones, who are often volunteers.
Danielson said that as a response to Polis’ argument, she planned to craft the new attempt to require background checks to work explicitly within the signed law — though she disagreed that the two measures, written in tandem last year, ever conflicted.
“The idea that somehow requiring a background check would be a barrier to someone coaching teams is not realistic,” Danielson said, adding: “If a team or a city can’t afford a background check, I wonder where our priorities are.”
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