A Note from Lara… Welcome to the latest edition of Legislative Snippets! This edition has news on legislation updates, proposed changes you need to know about, court cases and other interesting snippets for you to put on your radar as well as in your legislative/legal toolkit. Enjoy! Amendment 69: Colorado State Health Care System Initiative The Colorado State Health Care System Initiative, also known as Amendment 69, will be on the November 8, 2016, ballot in Colorado as an initiated constitutional amendment. Amendment 69 was called Initiative 20 during circulation. A "yes" vote is a vote in favor of creating ColoradoCare, a healthcare payment system designed to finance healthcare for Colorado residents partly through an approximately $25 billion increase in state taxes. A "no" vote is a vote against creating ColoradoCare. Ballot title The ballot title and submission clause as designated and fixed by the Board is as follows:[6] “Shall state taxes be increased $25 billion annually in the first full fiscal year, and by such amounts that are raised thereafter, by an amendment to the Colorado Constitution establishing a healthcare payment system to fund healthcare for all individuals whose primary residence is in Colorado, and, in connection therewith, creating a governmental entity called ColoradoCare to administer the healthcare payment system; providing for the governance of ColoradoCare by an interim board of trustees until an elected board of trustees takes responsibility; exempting ColoradoCare from the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights; assessing an initial tax on the total payroll from employers, payroll income from employees, and nonpayroll income at varying rates; increasing these tax rates when ColoradoCare begins making healthcare payments for beneficiaries; capping the total amount of income subject to taxation; authorizing the board to increase the taxes in specified circumstances upon approval of the members of ColoradoCare; requiring ColoradoCare to contract with healthcare providers to pay for specific healthcare benefits; transferring administration of the Medicaid and children's basic health programs and all other state and federal healthcare funds for Colorado to ColoradoCare; transferring responsibility to ColoradoCare for medical care that would otherwise be paid for by workers' compensation insurance; requiring ColoradoCare to apply for a waiver from the Affordable Care Act to establish a Colorado healthcare payment system; and suspending the operations of the Colorado health benefit exchange and transferring its resources to ColoradoCare?” Constitutional changes The measure would amend the Colorado Constitution by adding an additional article, Article XXX, which can be read . Click to read more. National Legislation and News
resume to the Center and get noticed by employers. Click for the SHRM Jobs page. Reprinted from If You Are Certified, You Should Read This: Many HR professionals are certified and seek to obtain the necessary credits in order to recertify every three years. But, many also do not know simple tricks to help rack up credits in a very easy way. For example, did you know that you can receive credit for: attending conferences being a member of SHRM being a member of the SHRM Advocacy Team writing letters to Congress participating in certain SHRM surveys attending certain webinars volunteering with your local SHRM chapter Info Calls Join the Colorado State Legislative Information Calls to get involved and stay informed. Here is a schedule of upcoming calls: Tuesday, July 19th at 11:30am Tuesday, October 18th at 11:30am Call Number: (866) 461-6772 Pass Code: 53931909 Stay Informed… Here are some resources to help keep you up to date: www.congress.gov www.legispeak.com /advocacy SHRM Express Request: Colorado State Law Resources SHRM's Information Center has compiled a variety of online employment law resources applicable to your state. Click to sign up. SHRM’s Focus on HR video series can be found at: . If you know of other great resources, please notify so she can include them in the next Legislative Snippets