Letter to the Editor: Cottage Law

Dear Editor:
I would like to bring attention to a Colorado bill that is currently going through the process of becoming law, that is House Bill 1027. This bill was started by my sister. A few years a go her husband was laid off. They have two kids and my sister was a stay-at-home mom. While he was out of work and they were trying to make ends meet she discovered a talent for decorating cakes. She is very good! She found that this could be a way to help the financial strain and bring in extra income.
In the state of Colorado, it is not legal to sell baked goods from one’s home. My sister, of course, wanted to obey that law and started her business out of a rented commercial kitchen. This kitchen space is rented for blocks of time and is shared by a variety of vendors. She had to pay a monthly fee to be a part of it and an hourly fee to use it. The hours she could find with small children were very late in the evening to very early in the morning. She made it work for almost a year but the cost she was paying for that time was eating any profit she was making despite the overwhelming support of those who wanted to buy her product. She had to leave the business incubator and is no longer able to sell. In an effort to fix the problems she and many bakers like her are facing she went to our state representatives and together they wrote up a bill to allow home bakeries, HB-1027. It has had overwhelming support from the house and many small bakers across the state who are looking for a way to help themselves in this struggling economy.
In order to keep this as short as possible I encourage you to read the bill here:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2012a/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/BE84697C2242E39C87257981007DD7BB?ope
HB-1027 made it through the house with a vote of 67-0 in favor of the bill. It now is sitting in the Senate. It has been assigned to the agricultural committee, why, I don’t know, as this bill is not relevant to agriculture. To shed some light on the purpose of this assignment let me introduce the competition. There is currently another bill they say is similar: SB12-48. Again to keep this as short as possible I ask you to read through it here:
http://www.leg.state.co.us/CLICS/CLICS2012A/csl.nsf/fsbillcont3/F8EA74C8447BB62387257981007DD1AD?Ope
Here are the basic differences: HB-1027 is in favor of the selling of non-potentially hazardous foods as defined by the FDA out of one’s home. It has no income cap. It allows for inspections to be done of the place where product is made and sold from. These are things that SB12-48 does not do. This bill would be better assigned to the Senate Business, Labor and Technology or the Senate Health and Human Services committees as it has nothing to do with agriculture.
The problem for HB-1027 is that the committee chair for agriculture is the same person who sponsored SB12-48 and she is not happy about the competition of HB-1027 which may in turn kill HB-1027. I personally feel that this is a conflict of interest, not to mention a little unethical, as do many bakers in Colorado, and does not give HB-1027 a fair hearing. For more about what affects this I invite you to visit https://www.facebook.com/ColoradoCottageLaw on Facebook. Thank you for your time and consideration of this topic.
Julie Alexander
Grand Junction, Colo.