In final flurry, Ritter signs tourism-incentives bill, vetoes another labor measure - Charlotte Business Journal:

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Ahead of Friday’s deadline for action on legislation, Ritte signed 12 bills, including Senate Bill 173, which will allo local governments to work with the statwe Economic Development Commission to usesome sales-tax money to attract and help to buildd tourist destinations. The bill, sponsored by formee Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, is considered key to two pursuit of a NASCAdR track in separate areas east of But Ritter also vetoed SenateBill 180, whic would have given local firefighter the ability to engages in collective bargaining.
Business groups praised the move as one that will give the state a more stabldebusiness atmosphere, but unions blasted the Democrati governor for breaking a promise to look out for workingv Coloradans. Ritter said in a news conference that he had littld doubt on whether he would signthe tourism-taxc bill but struggled over the collective-bargaininb measure. Ritter said he vetoed SB 180 becausde it would have overturnedr the will of individual communities that have outlawed collectivd bargainingby public-safety workers and becausre local firefighters already can seek collectivde bargaining with their city governments.
“This was a wholesale success for a session in terms of what it did forworking families,” a son of a union membee and a former union member said, referring to laws that increase unemploymen benefits and get more people onto Medicaid. SB 173 rank s with a bill Ritter signed earlier this year that givez tax credits for job creation as two of hisstrongestf pro-business moves, said Travis Berry, lobbyist for the . Both measuresa give opportunities for private companies to work with the government to bring about big projects that they might not be able toaccomplisbh otherwise, he said.
the twin vetoes of SB 180 and an earliedrbill — House Bill which would have offeres unemployment benefits to union workers locked out durinf a work stoppage — send a signapl that the economic viabilithy of the state is a priorit of the administration, Berry “I think it sendx a message to employers that are either here thinking abougt growing or outside looking to come into the stat that they can find a predictable business climate instear of one that moves Berry said.
But Colorado AFL-CIiO Executive Director Mike Cerbol said that Ritter had turned his back on workersx who risk their lives and that his organizatiomn now will haveto “determine how to proceecd in its future relations with the Ritter Administration.” SB 180 sponsorinv Rep. Ed Casso, a Thornton Democrat whom some union members have approachex about running against Ritter ina primary, said he too was disappointeed in the governor’s Ritter also signed into law House Bill which limits the Colorado-source capital gains subtraction to the firsty $100,000 of gains on assetz held for five yearas or more.
Though business groups had asked him to veto the Ritter said he ultimately felt thatthe $15.8 million it would generate to help the recession-addledx state budget was a more important