Payday loan reform heads to the governor

Good morning. Here's a look at news reports from around the state on issues of interest to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy for Wednesday, May 5, 2010. Listing here does not imply endorsement of the content.

ECONOMIC SELF SUFFICIENCY
The Denver Post: Payday-loan change OK'd
By a one-vote margin, the House on Tuesday sent Gov. Bill Ritter legislation putting new limits on payday loans that supporters said would help break a cycle of debt by borrowers.
Also: Durango Herald: Lawmakers pass payday loan measure


HEALTH POLICY
The Denver Post: Western Slope chosen for health-information technology pilot program
The Western Slope is among 15 communities across the country selected to test health-information technology as the nation embarks on federal reform.

The Denver Post: The lawsuit against health care reform
Even the now-sacrosanct old age pension program, what we call Social Security, underwent its share of legal challenges in the states, never mind the famous contests in the United States Supreme Court. The legal challenges to the state programs that preceded federal social security came up in every state that tried to enact a program, including Colorado.


FISCAL POLICY
Denver Post commentary: Seniors' tax break still a bad idea
When Republicans held power during Colorado's last budgetary meltdown, they suspended a special property tax break for seniors to help balance the budget. It was the right thing to do given the optionsand because the exemption itself, which rewards some seniors and ignores others without regard to income, had only been in place since 2000.

The Denver Post: Hands off my Botox, taxman
There’s a wrinkle developing in the way pharmaceuticals are taxed, according to Senate Majority Leader John Morse.

Pueblo Chieftain: Tuition flexibility bill gets preliminary nod
A bill that would give colleges the authority to raise tuition by up to 9 percent annually gained preliminary approval Tuesday in the Senate.

Colorado News Agency: Committee scuttles ‘balanced budget’ message to Congress
A call for a constitutional convention stipulating a balanced budget for the federal government was made from the confines of a House committee room today by a GOP lawmaker–but panel members voted against sending the message to Congress via a legislative resolution.

Colorado Springs Gazette: AG wants to compel Douglas Bruce to testify in campaign finance hearing
The Colorado Secretary of State has asked for an "expedited order" that would compel Colorado Springs anti-tax activist Douglas Bruce to comply with subpoenas seeking information about his involvement in three statewide ballot initiatives.

Face the State: Online retailers forced to lean on, rat out Colorado consumers
It’s nearing high noon in the gunfight between the Colorado legislature and Amazon.com.

Face the State: The taxman cometh - and he ain't taking prisoners
An apparent jump in the number of "deficiency" and "adjustment" letters issued by the state Department of Revenue has some accounting firms scratching their heads. Are more Colorado taxpayers screwing up on their returns than in the past? Is the budget-strapped state government more desperate to collect taxes than ever before? Or, is the tax-collection agency's new software for processing returns simply more thorough - or, more error prone - than its predecessor?

Associated Press via Colorado Springs Business Journal: Colo. House kills tax review measure
The Colorado House has killed a bill that would have required annual review of millions of dollars in tax credits.

GENERAL
KUSA: Thousands spent on unused census swag
The U.S. Census Bureau spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on promotional items used to convince more people to mail back their census forms, but a 9Wants to Know investigation found thousands of the items were dropped off, unused, at a local high school.