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Colorado’s 2022 Legislative Session and Free Enterprise

This year, Colorado’s congress introduced over 650 bills to address long-standing issues, prepare for the upcoming election, and dictate the future of Colorado policy.

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Bill Spotlight: SB22-234 Unemployment Compensation

Due to the influence of the COVID-19 pandemic and the state government’s policy responses, Colorado’s unemployment levels spiked in early 2020 and caused the state’s Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund to become deeply insolvent. Now, the Trust Fund is projected to remain insolvent until the 2024 fiscal year.

Bill Spotlight: HB22-1029 Compensatory Direct Distribution to Public Employees’ Retirement Association

PERA’s current unfunded liability is $31 billion. This is one indicator of PERA’s funding status as it measures the difference between projected benefit demands, and the assets (current fund balance + future expected returns) that have been collected to cover those benefits.

Colorado Jobs and Labor Force Update: March 2022

Colorado’s robust economy has added 391,300 jobs since April 2020, eclipsing the 374,500 jobs the state lost in March and April 2020. This represents a recovery rate of 104.5 percent which is 11.6 percentage points higher than the nationwide recovery rate of 92.9.

RECENT RESEARCH

Inflation in Colorado – March 2022 Update

Apr 12, 2022 | 2022 Research, Featured Research, Jobs & Our Economy, Recent Research, Research

Inflation in the Denver metropolitan area continues to run hot, particularly for housing. Overall price levels increased 2% between January and March and 9.1% over the last 12 months. The BLS reports housing inflation of 7.9%, but home prices (not a component of CPI) have increased 20.8% YoY through January 2021.

Fentanyl’s Increasing Toll on the Colorado Economy

Apr 11, 2022 | 2022 Research, Featured, Featured Research, Housing & Our Community, Recent Research, Research

Although the Opioid Crisis has been an ongoing public health issue since the late 1990’s, Colorado’s policymakers, law enforcement, district attorneys, addiction rehab advocates, and researchers have recently narrowed their focus on Schedule II Controlled Substances and more specifically, fentanyl.

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CSI’S MISSION

CSI’s mission is to examine the fiscal impacts of policies, initiatives, and proposed laws so that Coloradans are educated and informed on issues impacting their lives. Common Sense Institute was founded in 2010 originally as Common Sense Policy Roundtable. CSI’s founders were a concerned group of business and community leaders who observed that divisive partisanship was overwhelming policymaking and believed that sound economic analysis could help Coloradans make fact-based and common sense decisions.