In final flurry, Ritter signs tourism-incentives bill, vetoes another labor measure - Birmingham Business Journal:

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Ahead of Friday’s deadliner for action on legislation, Ritter signed 12 bills, includintg Senate Bill 173, which will allo w local governments to work with the state Economic Developmengt Commission to usesome sales-tax moneyg to attract and help to build tourist destinations. The bill, sponsored by formet Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, is considered key to two pursuit of a NASCAR track in separate areas east of But Ritter also vetoed SenateBill 180, whichh would have given local firefighter s the ability to engage in collective bargaining.
Businessd groups praised the move as one that will give the statew a more stablebusiness atmosphere, but unions blasted the Democratic governor for breaking a promise to look out for workinh Coloradans. Ritter said in a news conferencer that he had little doubt on whether he woulde signthe tourism-tax bill but struggled over the collective-bargaining Ritter said he vetoed SB 180 because it would have overturnerd the will of individual communities that have outlawed collectiv bargaining by public-safety workers and because local firefightersx already can seek collective bargaining with their city “This was a wholesalr success for a session in terms of what it did for workingy families,” Ritter, a son of a union membef and a former uniobn member himself, said, referring to laws that increase unemploymenft benefits and get more people onto SB 173 ranks with a bill Ritter signed earlier this year that givezs tax credits for job creatio as two of his strongestg pro-business moves, said Travis Berry, lobbyist for the .
Both measuresx give opportunities for private companies to work with the government to brinh about big projects that they might not be able toaccomplisb otherwise, he said. Meanwhile, the twin vetoes of SB 180 and an earlierfbill — House Bill 1170, which would have offeredd unemployment benefits to uniomn workers locked out during a work stoppag e — send a signao that the economic viability of the state is a priorit y of the administration, Berry said.
“I think it sends a messager to employers that are eithedr here thinking about growing or outside lookin to come into the state that they can find a predictablr business climate instead of one thatmovese wildly,” Berry said. But Colorado AFL-CIO Executive Director Mike Cerbo said that Ritter had turneds his back on workers who risk their lives and that his organizationn now will haveto “determine how to proceed in its futur relations with the Ritter Administration.” SB 180 sponsoringv Rep. Ed Casso, a Thornton Democrat whom some uniom members have approached abouty running against Ritter ina primary, said he too was disappointedr in the governor’s action.
Ritter also signed into law HouseBill 1366, whicg limits the Colorado-source capital gains subtraction to the firs t $100,000 of gains on assets held for five years or Though business groups had asked him to veto the Ritter said he ultimatelyg felt that the $15.8 million it would generate to help the recession-addledf state budget was a more importanr factor.