The National Federation of Independent Business in Colorado — the steadfast voice at the Capitol for the state’s small businesses — heaped praise this week on the Republican-run state Senate as well as our Democratic governor. Their praiseworthy deeds? Supporting legislation to ease the complicated and cumbersome burden of sales-tax compliance on the state’s mom ‘n’ pop shops.

In a news release issued Tuesday to the press and public, the NFIB singles out House Bill 1216 and Senate Bill 112, both of which we’ve reported on recently (here and here), and notes kind words from NFIB state Director Tony Gagliardi regarding progress on the measures:

House Bill 1216, which passed the Senate Finance Committee, today, on a 5-0 vote, “creates the sales and use tax simplification task force made up of legislative members and state and local sales and use tax experts,” according to the measure’s language. “The bill requires the task force to study sales and use tax simplification between the state and local governments, and in particular between the state and home rule jurisdictions”…

Related to today’s action, Gagliardi praised Governor Hickenlooper for his signing into law Senate Bill 112, last week. That measure adds greater clarification “on statutes of limitations in the dispute resolution process when a taxpayer owes sales or use tax to one local government but has erroneously paid the disputed tax to another local government,” according to a news release put out the governor’s office.

The NFIB press statement quotes Gagliardi:

“In actions taken by the Senate and Gov. John Hickenlooper, small-businesses are delighted to see that their long-hoped-for goal of simplifying our state’s sales and use tax collection slowly becoming a reality.”