Colorado news roundupThe weekday Colorado news roundup is a collection of links to news reports and other resources of interest to the Colorado Center on Law and Policy. Listing does not imply endorsement of the content. 
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Fiscal policy
Denver Business Journal: Debate over simple tourism bill is anything but
Senate Bill 124 is a simple bill. It would increase the number of Colorado tourism projects that the state Economic Development Commission (EDC) can approve for tax-increment financing this year from two to six - while maintaining a cap of six total projects that can get Regional Tourism Act (RTA) status over the next three years. But listening to a 40-minute debate on the House floor Thursday that touched on the status of state education funding, featured lobbying by legislators for specific RTA applicants and saw members repudiate votes they had cast just three days ago, one couldn't help but believe that what was at stake was nothing less than the second coming of the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights. Also: The Denver Post: Hickenlooper may veto bill expanding Colorado's Regional Tourism Act Health care
The New York Times: Catholic Fund Cuts Off Aid Over Groups' Affiliations
For three years now, Compa�eros, a small nonprofit organization in rural southwestern Colorado, has received thousands of dollars from the Roman Catholic Church to help poor Hispanic immigrants with basic needs including access to health care and guidance on local laws. But in February, the group was informed by a representative from the Diocese of Pueblo that its financing from the Catholic Campaign for Human Development, an arm of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops devoted to ending poverty, was in danger.
Earlier Thursday, Moody's put out a report looking at how for-profit hospitals would fare should the Supreme Court overturn the health reform law. The short answer: Their credit ratings would get slammed. "The largest impact of repeal is that, if you take away the mandate, you don't get the coverage expansion expected under the legislation," says Dean Diaz, a vice president at Moody's who focuses on for-profit hospitals and wrote the report. "That, in turn, leaves hospitals with increasing uncompensated care costs." The national scene The 120,000 increase in payrolls, the fewest in five months, followed a revised 240,000 gain in February that was bigger than first estimated, Labor Department figures showed today in Washington. The March increase was less than the most pessimistic forecast in a Bloomberg News survey in which the median estimate called for a 205,000 rise. Unemployment fell to 8.2 percent, the lowest since January 2009, from 8.3 percent.
U.S. local-government payrolls fell to the lowest level in more than six years in a sign that municipalities still face fiscal strains almost three years after the end of the recession. Employment by local governments, adjusted for seasonal hiring swings, dropped by 3,000 in March to 14.1 million, the lowest since February 2006, the U.S. Labor Department reported today. State payrolls helped offset the loss, showing a third straight month of gains, rising 2,000 to 5.1 million. It's the longest streak of job increases at that level since 2008.
Think tanks
Center on Budget and Policy Priorities: Chad Stone, Chief Economist, on the March Employment Report
Today's jobs report disappointed expectations, with employers adding only 120,000 jobs in March, making clear that a strong jobs recovery remains elusive. The unemployment rate dipped to 8.2 percent, but that decline reflected people leaving the labor force, not finding jobs. The combination of high unemployment and depressed labor force participation leaves the share of Americans with a job at levels last seen in the mid-1980s (see chart). Though the economy could use a boost through monetary or fiscal policy, that's not likely to occur, further dampening hopes of strong job growth any time soon.
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