On February 17, Colorado’s largest company, Palantir, moved its headquarters out of our state. When a company valued at $300 billion votes with its feet, we lawmakers should stop and ask why. Instead, the majority party has doubled down on the very policies that drive employers away: more regulati on, more mandates, more litigation, and more uncertainty. Colorado doesn’t have a business recruitment problem. We have a business retention problem created by years of legislative overreach. For small businesses it shows up as paperwork, penalties, and rising compliance costs. For mid-sized employers it becomes hiring freezes, canceled expansions, and not here decisions. For the largest employers, it becomes the ultimate conclusion: leave. And while Colorado families struggle with affordability, the legislature machine keeps driving up costs for all. House Bill 1054 is a case study in what’s gone wrong. Branded as Protections for Worker Safety, it is really a contingency plan for a scenario that isn’t credible: the elimination or functional collapse of the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration. OSHA was created in 1970 to set workplace safety standards nationwide. It already exists. It already regulates. It already enforces. And yes, like any federal agency, it continues to update standards over time. That’s the whole point of a national system: one baseline, clear expectations, consistent enforcement. HB-1054 is a solution in search of a problem. The people who will pay for it are Colorado employers, workers, and consumers.  And frankly, we can’t afford it. Supporters will say, “Don’t worry, this only kicks in if OSHA fails.”  That talking point collapses if you look close enough. Duplicative regulatory structures don’t sit quietly on a shelf. They create administrative confusion, legal ambiguity, and compliance planning costs long before the first trigger is pulled. Businesses make decisions based on risk. When the government signals that it intends to create a second layer of workplace regulation and invites enforcement by civil litigation, smart employers adjust immediately.  As with Palantir, that adjustment can be simply to abandon Colorado. Pick up and move to a more business friendly state. Worse than constructing a Frankenstein’s Monster of mismatched compliance regulations, HB-1054 expands private litigation in a way that is tailor-made for abuse. It would empower vaguely designated third-party nonprofits to seek injunctions and statutory damages, even when employers are complying with existing OSHA standards.  That is not worker safety.  That is a new cottage industry: lawsuits as a business model. That is how you chill investment. That is how you slow growth. That is how you divert money away from wages, benefits, and safety improvements and into attorneys, consultants, and defensive bureaucracy. Finally, there’s the legal mess this bill invites. Federal law generally preempts state occupational safety regulation where federal standards already exist, unless a state creates an OSHA approved state plan. HB26 1054 doesn’t do that. So now we’re teeing up years of court fights, uncertain rules, and regulatory whiplash. Employers don’t expand in that environment. They retreat. Or they relocate. As the Ranking Member of the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee, I care deeply about worker safety. It matters. It is non-negotiable. Reasonable regulation has a role in protecting workers, consumers, and fair competition. OSHA already provides that baseline. What we cannot accept, and Colorodans can’t afford, is the legislature using safety as a label to justify another layer of mandates and litigation that will make Colorado even more expensive and even less competitive. Colorado is already pricing people out. Energy costs are up. Housing costs are up. Insurance costs are up. Regulatory costs are up. The last thing we should be doing is passing bills that increase overhead for the very businesses that create paychecks and keep communities alive. When even a multi-billion dollar company decides Colorado isn’t worth the burden, that is not a fluke. It’s a warning flare. HB26-1054 is another step in the wrong direction, and it won’t be the last unless we change course. The legislature should be slowing down, scrutinizing, and rejecting policies that raise costs, increase regulatory burdens, and expand litigation against employers. If we want Colorado to be affordable again and prosperous again, we need to stop treating businesses like targets and start treating them like partners in building strong communities. Representative Chris Richardson is a proud resident of Elbert County. He is a retired U.S. Army Colonel, who served 23 years, including combat deployments with the 101st Airborne Division during Desert Storm and as commander of the 43rd Sustainment Brigade at Fort Carson. He served two terms as an Elbert County Commissioner. ...read more read less