Leading Democratic lawmakers said Tuesday they’re in agreement with the broad intentions behind a key Senate bill aimed at easing regulatory burdens on small businesses but cautioned that they aren’t sold yet on the legislation’s particulars.

Senate Bill 1, dubbed the “Regulatory Relief Act of 2017,” is sponsored by Sen. Tim Neville, R-Littleton, and his son House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, R-Castle Rock. It has its first hearing scheduled for Wednesday afternoon before the Senate Business, Labor and Technology Committee, which includes Sen. Neville as its vice chair.

In a nutshell, the bill would require state agencies to give small businesses – those with fewer than 500 employees – 30 days to comply with first-time, minor violations of some administrative rules, rather than immediately slapping on a fine. It’s meant to apply to rules such as keeping records and filing reports and exempts rules that protect safety and health, as well as permitting or licensing requirements and numerous other kinds of rules. It also would require state agencies to try to get input from small businesses about proposed rules.

The legislation – first out of the gate in the GOP-controlled Senate – was one of just a handful of bills singled out for mention by Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-Cañon City, in his Opening Day remarks. Saying Republican senators would “remain committed to reducing the regulatory and bureaucratic hurdles that inhibit business startups, expansions and relocations,” he vowed to work to reduce new rules “that hamstring our small businesses across the state.”

The routine sentiment expressed by Republican lawmakers routinely runs aground when Democrats hold the majority, as they do in the House this session.

“It’s about time that we give businesses a break and actually work with businesses to actually help them do what they do best, take care of their clients and customers and help them create more jobs and opportunity for Colorado’s citizens and workers,” says Sen. Neville as he stands in front of boxes containing tens of thousands of pages of recently issued state regulations in a video produced by the Senate Republicans to promote the legislation.

“I think in terms of cutting red tape, that’s certainly something we’re open to as long as it’s for minor violations,” House Majority Leader K.C. Becker, D-Boulder, told The Colorado Statesman. “Any bill would have to balance (cutting) red tape with concerns for the health and safety of Coloradans.”

She said Democrats are willing to hear the case the bill’s backers make.

“The policy is something we can support,” Becker said. “The devil’s in the details. We’ll be paying attention to who testifies and what they have to say. In general, we’re certainly open to cutting red tape in a responsible matter.”

In a meeting with reporters with both sponsors on Tuesday morning, Sen. Neville argued that the bill’s provisions were just common sense.

Invoking former President Ronald Reagan’s famous adage that the nine most feared words are, “‘We’re here from the government, and we’re here to help.'” he said, “If you could imagine a culture where actually the government is actually coming in actually looking to help a business survive and promote growth and jobs and everything else. We look at that as a positive thing for government to do.”

Rep. Neville said he was hopeful the legislation would pass muster with business-minded Democrats, noting that Gov. John Hickenlooper had appeared to be supportive in recent talks. (“We have issued no such position on the bill,” a spokeswoman for the governor said in an email on Tuesday.)

According to the most recent report by the federal Small Business Administration – the Nevilles are using the SBA’s definition of small businesses as those with under 500 employees – Colorado has 572,546 small businesses, and they employ 1 million people, or just under half of the private workforce.

The legislation will make a difference across the economy, Sen. Neville said, but in particular in three fields dominated by small businesses – technology, construction and hospitality and hotels, including the tourism industry and restaurants.

Rep. Neville cited the cases of two small businesses in his district that ran afoul of regulations – a child care facility with a coat rack that allowed the children’s coats to touch the ground, contrary to requirements, and a Tae Kwon Do facility that didn’t have the proper licensing and was shut down – although he conceded that neither instance would have been covered by the proposed law, which exempts health and safety requirements and state-issued permits, licenses or registrations.

In the case of the preschool, the errant coat rack was discovered during a routine inspection, Rep. Neville said, and the business wasn’t fined over it. But now the business is “running scared,” he added, saying there’s an employee who is solely devoted to complying with regulations.

“We’re looking for the agencies to be a partner,” Sen. Neville said. “One of the things we don’t want to do is over-burden the agencies also.” He suggested that agencies could undergo a “culture shift,” changing the way the government interacts with businesses.

A reporter pointed out that the vast majority of rules issued in recent years have been developed to regulate the nascent marijuana industry, which Sen. Neville conceded, but he didn’t back down.

“We know that the impact of regulation on business is tremendous,” he said. “We know at the federal level it’s $2 trillion a year. Now, many of those regulations are extremely important. Many are not.”

The bill’s fiscal note predicts a minimal reduction in state funds if the fines for minor first-time offense aren’t collected.

Sen. Neville also acknowledged that some state agencies are lenient with first-time offenders, effectively already doing what the bill would mandate, but said businesses shouldn’t have to rely on the good graces of bureaucrats.

“We want to make it the standard,” he said, adding, “Some agencies are taking this approach, but it’s important to codify it in statute.”

Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, one of three Democrats on the seven-member Business, Labor and Technology Committee, said he was willing to hear out the arguments in favor of the bill but was skeptical it would accomplish much.

“If there’s a rule or regulation out there that isn’t working or is overly burdensome, let’s address it,” Kerr told The Statesman. “My concern is with the vagueness of the bill. It says it won’t apply to any rules or regulations that impact public health and safety. As far as I know, most rules are put in place to protect health and safety.”

Citing recent high-profile public health crises, Kerr added, “What I want to make sure is we don’t end up in a Flint, Michigan, or Burlington, Colorado, situation where we allow a bad actor to look the other way or ignore our responsibility to safety and health.”

He said he was also concerned that the bill set the threshold for big businesses so high with the 500-employee definition.

“I hear you don’t always have somebody whose job it is to keep track of what the rules and regulations are. But c’mon. I don’t think we should be giving a company that has its own HR department a pass. If they’re having troubles with a rule or regulation, let’s take a look at it,” he said.

Likewise, Kerr cautioned against piling more requirements on state agencies under the guise of requiring input or establishing dialogue, as the bill’s sponsors describe it.

“I’m all for the exchange of good information to prevent problems down the road,” he said. “My question is, does this set up another bureaucratic hurdle? Right now, when a law is passed there’s opportunity for people and businesses and organizations to come down to the Capitol to testify. When we do give rule-making authority to a department, they have that process already in place where they promulgate rules, they have a process of interacting with the public they’re going to be regulating. I’m a little leery of throwing a whole new layer of ‘you can’t do anything,’ and especially if it has to do with public health or safety.”

Nonetheless, Kerr said he was looking forward to the hearing.

“We’ll have to see how the testimony comes out and see how these statutes are supposed to work – if we get good testimony explaining how this cuts through red tape and doesn’t add red tape, let’s make sure we’re not adding, we’re subtracting.”

In addition to health and safety rules, the bill would also exempt violations involving bidding on state contracts, activities required by federal law, the attorney general’s enforcement of the Uniform Consumer Credit Code, rules adopted by the Colorado Civil Rights Division and situations where state law requires an agency to assess a fine for noncompliance with an agency rule or statute.

The hearing is set for 2 p.m. Wednesday, Jan. 25, 2017, in Senate Committee Room 354.

– ernest@coloradostatesman.com