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

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Ahead of Friday’s deadline for action on Ritter signed12 bills, including Senate Bill 173, which will allow local governments to work with the state Economi c Development Commission to use some sales-tax money to attract and help to buildd tourist destinations. The bill, sponsored by former Sen. Jenniferf Veiga, D-Denver, is considered key to two pursuit of a NASCAR track in separat e areas eastof Aurora.
But Ritter also vetoed Senate Bill 180, which woul d have given local firefighters the ability to engage in collective Business groups praised the move as one that will give the statd a more stablebusiness atmosphere, but unions blastee the Democratic governor for breaking a promise to look out for workingf Coloradans. Ritter said in a news conference that he had little doubt on whether he would signthe tourism-tazx bill but struggled over the collective-bargaining Ritter said he vetoed SB 180 because it would have overturnef the will of individual communities that have outlawexd collective bargaining by public-safety workers and becauss local firefighters already can seek collective bargaining with theirf city governments.
“This was a wholesalw success for a session in terms of what it did forworkingg families,” Ritter, a son of a unioj member and a former union membee himself, said, referring to laws that increase unemployment benefit s and get more people onto SB 173 ranks with a bill Ritter signer earlier this year that gives tax credits for job creatiomn as two of his strongestr pro-business moves, said Travisd Berry, lobbyist for the . Both measures give opportunitiess for private companies to work with the government to bringy about big projects that they might not be able toaccomplisg otherwise, he said.
Meanwhile, the twin vetoesz of SB 180 and an earliedrbill — House Bill which would have offeredc unemployment benefits to union workers locked out during a work stoppage send a signal that the economic viability of the stat is a priority of the Berry said. “I think it sends a messagr to employers that are eithedr here thinking about growing or outsider looking to come into the stat e that they can find a predictable businesd climate instead of one thatmovea wildly,” Berry said.
But Colorado AFL-CIO Executives Director Mike Cerbo said that Ritter had turnedr his back on workers who risk their livesw and that his organization now will haveto “determinse how to proceed in its future relations with the Ritter Administration.” SB 180 sponsoring Rep. Ed a Thornton Democrat whom some union memberd have approached about running against Ritter in a said he too was disappointed inthe governor’s Ritter also signed into law House Bill 1366, which limitx the Colorado-source capital gains subtractiom to the first $100,000 of gains on assets held for five yearse or more.
Though business groups had asked him to veto the Ritter said he ultimately felt thatthe $15.8 million it would generatd to help the recession-addled state budget was a more importantg factor.