“Could it get any worse for small business?” asks the state’s top small-business advocacy group in a statement sent to the press this week. The answer to that question, says the National Association of Independent Business in Colorado, is “unfortunately, yes.”

It adds, “And perhaps the Colorado Legislature is poised to make it worse.”

Times have been tough enough even without legislative meddling. Through its extensive polling, the federation has its fingers on the pulse of America’s small businesses, including mom ‘n’ pop shops on every Main Street, and the responses have been gloomy.

“NFIB polls its membership better than any association does theirs, and that occasionally yields some disturbing results,” Tony Gagliardi, NFIB’s Colorado state director, said in the statement.

“But I’ve never seen such a rapid succession of our research show wave after wave of disheartening news as we have seen in this month alone.”

In a survey by the organization at the start of this year, its small-business members said their local economies still weren’t performing up to pre-pandemic levels. A few days later, the group’s monthly jobs report found 41% of small businesses had job openings they could not fill. 

Then, NFIB released its “Optimism Index” on Tuesday, reflecting a continued erosion of small-business confidence. Spiraling inflation was top of mind for respondents in that survey.

And that’s all just a stage setter for the damage the 2023 Legislature could do. For a lot of Colorado’s small businesses, Gagliardi says, the Democrats’ consolidation of power in the Legislature in November only can bode ill. The self-styled party of the worker never has been known to champion those who create our jobs.

Gagliardi seems to see little hope: “None of this buffeting of bad news for small-business owners … will slow the so-called progressives now in firmer control of the Colorado Legislature after last election.”

Ruling Democrats are expected to introduce legislation implementing policies like “pay equity,” “joint employer” and “predictive scheduling” – all of which micromanage employers. The upshot is to increase the cost of doing business and tie employers’ hands.

Pay-equity policies force dissimilar job descriptions to pay the same wage in the name of “economic justice.” Joint-employer laws require employers to treat more cost-effective contract employees as if they were costlier company employees. Predictive-scheduling regulations undercut an employer’s ability to flexibly schedule workers and their shifts.

Gagliardi says joint-employer and predictive scheduling “might as well be called the Fast-Food Restaurant Removal Act of 2023.” Just what Colorado’s hard-pressed restaurant industry needs – another gut punch from the General Assembly.

That’s not to say all of the ruling Democrats at the Capitol don’t appreciate the pressures facing Colorado’s small-business sector; some of the lawmakers even come from small-business backgrounds.

The problem is lawmakers’ failure to understand cause and effect – i.e., the real-world impact of their lofty intentions. It might feel good, for example, to require restaurants to give advance notice of shift changes to workers who are on call. But those kinds of businesses must be able to change staffing quickly from day to day, and even from morning to evening, to meet demand. Restricting that flexibility could cripple their operations.

Gagliardi could be right; a lot of that basic wisdom might fall on deaf ears in a party that never has been in sync with the needs of small business. But we’ll weigh in often, nevertheless, as the session progresses. Who knows? Maybe we’ll be in for some pleasant surprises.

Colorado Springs Gazette Editorial Board