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Colorado Business Leaders Make Pitch to Senators, Governor

Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo), Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo) and Governor John Hickenlooper take part in a business and innovation roundtable in Louisville Friday.
Photo by Kirk Siegler
Senator Mark Udall (D-Colo), Senator Michael Bennet (D-Colo) and Governor John Hickenlooper take part in a business and innovation roundtable in Louisville Friday.

Colorado Democratic leaders got an earful from business officials in the tech and bioscience sectors Friday, many of whom said they were worried the state is at jeopardy of losing companies due to government red tape and an underfunded education system. 

Governor John Hickenlooper and senators Mark Udall and Michael Bennet visited the Colorado office of Sierra Nevada Space Systems where motors and other equipment on the Mars rovers are developed.

During a roundtable discussion, representatives from the company and other notables in the local clean tech sector presented the trio a report on how the state’s business environment can be more competitive;  including a suggestion to create a statewide venture capital fund, and a call for eliminating the state's business personal property tax. 

Senator Bennet said he appreciates the open dialogue.  

"We need predictability, our companies need predictability," Bennet said.  "They need to have some view into the future about what regulatory policy’s going to be, what tax policy’s going to be, how we’re going to drive innovation in the country."

Driving innovation has been a top down push of late from the Obama Administration.  Bennet said he wants the state’s entire Congressional delegation to review and commit support to the business leaders’ report, dubbed ‘Coloradans for an Innovation Economy.

Kirk Siegler reports for NPR, based out of NPR West in California.