The Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry picks up where we left off the other day in our coverage of a new regulatory reform bill now pending in the legislature. It’s intended to lighten the load of rules and regulations on small business. But as the heavyweight business group points out, even that resoundingly Republican premise may not be enough to get the legislation through the GOP-run state Senate.

That’s because the bipartisan but Democratic-driven House Bill 1270 replaced a previous GOP version that which was killed in the Democrat-dominated House. HB 1270, introduced in the House by Reps. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, D-Arvada, and Polly Lawrence, R-Roxborough Park, was approved by the full House at the end of last week. A lot like its Republican predecessor, the bill gives state agencies discretion to let businesses fix violations with no fines or reduced fines.

In an e-newsletter blasted out Friday, CACI, Colorado’s statewide chamber of commerce, handicaps the bill’s upcoming trip to the Senate as a risky proposition:

The politics surrounding HB-1270…may damage its chances of success in the Republican-controlled Senate.

In other words, tit-for-tat could well end up being the name of the game. However much the presumably business-friendly GOP may like a bill that does demonstrably what the late Republican iteration did, they may feel it’s more important to flex their muscle in the upper chamber and thereby set an example. Read: We’re not going to be pushed around by the House.

As we noted on the subject just the other day, i it seems everybody at the Capitol wants to help small business – provided it’s their own party that is on record offering the help.