Blog

Public employee unions are a hot issue around the country. As local and state governments and school districts struggle to balance their budgets and meet basic needs of their residents, the costs of wages and benefits for unionized public employees are raised more frequently. It might even be an issue in Fort Collins this fall during School Board elections.

Like you, I have an amazing amount of information that flows across my electronic transom. It becomes a blur. Sometimes, however, there will be something so unusual that it catches my eye. A recent example is "The Happiness Project." A challenging economy and political crankiness seem to have left many people...,well, cranky. To then have someone evangelizing happiness is refreshing. I don't know anything about this person and I'm not promoting her book, but if you're looking for a brief respite, take a look at www.happiness-project.com.

Keeping track of what’s happening with local government is a big part of what the Chamber does. Well, keeping track and, when appropriate, weighing in with the business perspective to influence the outcome.

We have an active local government, meaning that there is a lot going on. Based on the comments I get from members, I thought it might be helpful to provide a primer on how the City Council operates and where you can go for detailed information.

Taxes and deficits are two of the more controversial topics of the day. A new report published by the Tax Foundation ranks the states by how much of a worker’s workday hours are spent paying for their local, state and federal taxes. On average, American’s spend 2 hours and 13 minutes of their 8-hour workday paying for government. Add in the federal deficit and that grows to 3 hours and 7 minutes or 39 percent. It’s an interesting way to look at how much the average person’s labor goes to pay for public services.

The reaction I’ve received to the column I recently wrote in the Coloradoan about poverty has been interesting.

The 2011 State Legislative Session has come to an end.  The Chamber's state and federal lobbying group is called the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance (NCLA).  It is a joint committee of the Fort Collins, Greeley and Loveland Chambers of Commerce.  On Tuesday NCLA did a legislative wrap-up with area legislators. As reported in the Northern Colorado Business Report and Loveland Reporter Herald, NCLA had a good session representing business.

Recently I was part of a group that toured the Fort Collins Museum & Discovery Science Center, which is under construction on the northwest corner of North College and Cherry. And it’s a winner.

The community regularly gets external recognition about Fort Collins being a great place. As a community champion, the Chamber loves to collect those stories and rankings. Aside from being a sop for our community boosterism, the information can be of real benefit to managers and HR directors trying to recruit specific people to fill critical positions at their companies. The information can also be helpful to people considering relocating to Fort Collins.