? Sick and tired of your boss making bad decisions? Think you could do better? Here’s your chance, hot-shot. A bill, sponsored by Democratic state Rep. James Coleman and Republican state Sen. Jack Tate, was approved by the Legislature and sent to the governor to require the Colorado Office of Economic Development to establish a revolving loan fund to help set up employee-owned businesses. The office will contract with a non-profit organization that supports and promotes the employee-owned business model, and work with the Colorado Housing and Finance Authority to offer loans. So the next time something at work causes you to wish you were in charge, you know who to turn to buy out the boss.

? Charter schools are all the rage in the Denver Public School District. Or at least many want to be in the district, vying for their spot in the educational scheme of things in Denver. A Chalkbeat story said the DPS School Board recently approved 11 new charter schools, all of them part of charter networks that already have a presence in the city. The board also approved new elementary schools that would be managed by the  district and three charter high schools, one of which targets teenagers in addiction recovery. However, not all are likely to open in the fall, since some want to welcome students in a DPS building and others hope to find their own building. Location, location, location.

? It sounds like a good time to be a Louisville City Council member: Officials are planning to consider a pay raise for future mayors and Council members. The Boulder Daily Camera reported that the mayor is paid about $6,000 per year, Council members $3,000 per year. The proposal, if approved, would increase the mayor’s salary to $14,400 per year and Council members’ salaries would increase to $9,600 per year. The story notes some current office holders are hesitant about the size of the increases, so we’ll see what happens. ? To help deal with the increasing costs of providing emergency services, the El Paso County commissioners are considering allowing local fire protection districts to charge builders impact fees. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported the county’s 20 fire districts would need commissioners’ permission to collect the fees. And if the measure passes, commissioners would have to approve fees – from several hundred to a few thousand dollars on each new home – proposed by those districts. Builders and developers worry the fees, which would be passed on to customers, could “price out” some buyers. ? We all need to stop calling it the “negative factor” when we discuss how much tax money state lawmakers siphon away from public education each year. From now on, just call it the “budget stabilization factor.” That’s what Chalkbeat reported lawmakers added to the annual school funding bill this year. As Lisa Weil, executive director of Great Education Colorado, a nonprofit that advocates for more school funding, is quoted in the story: “You can change the name, but the debt’s the same.” ? Not being much of a shopping mall type of guy, I’ve never been inside the Colorado Mills Mall in Lakewood. But it’s still hard to get my head around how much damage it suffered in our May 8 storm. As the Denver Business Journal and others reported, the mall’s owners think it may be the holiday shopping season before things are back to normal and all 210 stores inside the mall are open for business. About 30 of those are locally owned small businesses. Meanwhile, the City of Lakewood will likely take a $350,000 a month hit to the city’s coffers due to mall’s closure. That’s about 3 to 4 percent of the city’s monthly budget. Maybe not so many skylights in the roof next time around? – mike@coloradostatesman.com