In June, the ASCA celebrated upon news that Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper has signed our model legislation into law.
The ASCA fought tooth and nail before the Colorado General Assembly for this legislation, getting a bill introduced nearly a year ago. Early this year, the bill began to move through the legislature. Along with a group of Colorado snow and ice management contractors, we testified before both the Colorado Senate and at House Committee hearings in support of the legislation. The bill passed the Senate on March 1st with a vote of 27-8. It then passed the Colorado House of Representatives on April 23rd with a vote of 24-11. Before passing the Colorado House, the bill was amended to appease some opposition, so it went back to the Senate, where the amended Senate Bill 18-062 passed 35-0. It was forwarded to Governor Hickenlooper’s desk for approval on May 21 and was signed into law during the first week in June.
Our model legislation specifically addresses hold-harmless agreements and indemnification language in snow and ice management contracts and disallows a property owner or manager from passing on their liability to the snow and ice management company.
Obviously, we are thrilled with the success. We now have two states (Illinois is the other) that have enacted our legislation. This is a common-sense bill that, in the simplest of terms, prohibits a property owner from passing their liability on to the snow contractor.
We are determined to get this legislation enacted in all the major snow states and, to date, we’ve laid the ground work in many of them.
Currently we have bills before legislators in the following states:
- New Jersey: A3968 and S665
- New York: A6746 and S3703
- Pennsylvania: HB624
- Indiana: HB 1125 and S131
- Massachusetts: HB2369
A is an Assembly Bill, HB is House Bill and S is a Senate Bill.
We also have done a lot of groundwork in other states – such as Michigan, Ohio and Wisconsin – where we expect progress very soon.
While the ASCA is leading the charge, we also need our members to be active in their home states and help drive this legislation through to completion. This includes writing to your representatives and letting them know how important this legislation is to you as a voter and as a business owner. This is easy to do as most of the representatives have a “Contact Me” button or page on their website. Simply letting them know the bill number and explain that this legislation makes properties safer in winter months and will have a huge positive impact on your business, and especially your insurance rates.
If you are in one of the above snow states, I encourage you to a quick letter to your state representatives in support of the bill. And if your state is not list above, feel free to contact me and we can talk about how to move forward in your state.
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