Surprising jump for new Colorado business filings, and a lot more

Good morning Colorado. You are listening to the Daily Sun Up. It's a conversation with

the Colorado Sun. I'm Team Editor David Krause. Before we jump into today's conversation,

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at kp.org slash CO. Now back to the show. The number of new businesses in Colorado shot up more than

12% in the first quarter from a year ago. That's according to data from the Secretary of State's

Office released on Monday. It's a first quarter jump that is surprised a few economists,

so joining me to talk about the latest numbers and what they mean is Sun Business Reporter Tamra

Chung. Hello, Tamra Chung. Hey DK. Let's get into the numbers, shall we? Hit us up, Tamra, what do the

SOS office numbers show? So the Secretary of State's Office, that's the group that oversees all

the business filings. Anything that's recorded, that's what the Secretary's Office does.

Every quarter, they share the update, how many new businesses filed, to start up, how many

dissolved, how many renewed. What's the number of outstanding generally in good standing businesses

and stuff like that? What we've seen since the pandemic is a sort of less enthusiasm maybe to

start a business. So seasonally, the numbers have dropped since, let's see, 2022 to 2023.

But in the first quarter of 2026, the numbers went up by more than, like, four, 5,000 or 6,000 new

businesses. And we're talking about nearly 55,000, 55,000. Hear that? 55,000 new businesses filed

to start in the first quarter of 2026. That is probably, let me look at the numbers real quick,

it's looking like compared to, you know, the pandemic of course and even during the special season

when there were discounts on filing, that's up about, you know, almost like 10,000 new businesses

so that was kind of a surprise to the folks who sort of review a lot of the secretary of state

data. I talk a lot to Brian Lewandowski over at University of Colorado's business school. He's

in charge of the, you know, economic research division over there and he said the number was

extra ordinary because partly because I think the business environment hasn't been so stellar.

Last year, of course, we lost jobs in Colorado for the first time since 2020. And, you know,

that was a bad year to compare it to. So if you want to exclude the pandemic, that's a,

it's the first time we lost jobs in 15 years. You know, business sentiment has been kind of down

because, you know, all the global trade issues, higher tariffs, you know, obviously the geopolitics

that are going on oil prices today, you know, it's just not, you know, a lot of business leaders who

were surveyed just don't feel like it's a great time to invest or hire. They're just kind of down

on the economy. It's one of the most negative quarters we've had in a while. So that increase in

new businesses, you know, that that was kind of a highlight for the local economy.

Tamra, is there a correlation we can draw between stagnant job growth recently in Colorado

and the jump on the new business filings? Well, let me say first, you know, I did ask those

questions like, well, what, what caused this in Brian Lewandowski who I spoke to, he said,

you know, it's really hard to say any sort of reason is speculative because all they do is they

look at the data, they fight, you know, the data only tells them what the companies are,

where they're based, where they're located in Colorado or the US and what's sort of a type of

business they're filing for. And but if you think about it and what I've heard from other economists

in the past is when new business filings do increase, that could be a sign of, you know, the economy

might be slow or, you know, that's confidence in a person deciding to go out on their own.

But it could also be because they were laid off or they haven't been able to find a job for many

months, maybe years. So they are taking a step into starting their own business and trying to see

if they can make it or start something new. So that's, that was, that's a likely possibility. But

unfortunately, we don't know for sure. There are companies from outside of Colorado who are filing

as new businesses in Colorado. Talk about what that number looks like, Tamara. And where are these

companies coming from, where people coming from to start businesses in Colorado?

Sure. Yeah. And actually that is the one data point we can figure out, you know, where are these

companies, where are they, you know, where they're based and, you know, where are they coming from

basically and where they're where they hope to start. So the one thing I did notice with the data

is something called foreign, foreign companies, which does not mean international companies. It

just means that they are filing from outside of Colorado. And that number for the first quarter

of 2026 actually did increase by 60%. You know, I pulled the data from the state's

data bank that shows, you know, every single company that filed in the first three quarters. And

according to my calculations, it looks like 88% of those, you know, 50,000 or so companies

were based in Colorado or from Colorado. But the next highest state was California with only

about 700 companies in the first three months, you know, of 2026 followed by Texas, New York,

Florida, Virginia, Arkansas, DC. I have a whole list. Should be some of it should be in the

story today if you look at it online. But to me, you know, that was sort of interesting. Well,

why are these out of state companies coming to Colorado? Because, you know, I've written stories

about how businesses here are feeling the strain of, you know, so many laws and legislation

that they are looking outside of the state to expand. Brian Lewandowski did mention. Maybe

it's companies that are just fran, you know, franchises that are expanding a second location.

But again, we don't know for sure, but it does look like more companies from out of state have

filed to start a business here in Colorado. According to the Secretary of State's office, Tamra,

the agency also continues to address complaints about fraudulent filings and business identity theft.

What's going on there? You know, I mentioned earlier that a few years ago,

the state offered a discount to file to start a new business, you know, it went down to a dollar

from today's $50 to file to start a business. And that really helped, you know, new business activity

soar. That's when the last record was hit and, you know, even though we're close to that record now.

But what also happened was a lot of, you know, for only a dollar, you could start a company.

And there was a lot of, you know, business identity theft, fraudulent filers and stuff like that.

So since then, the Secretary of State's office has been sort of watching this space and taking

complaints from just anyone who wants to file one about a suspicious, about suspicious activity.

And so that number, since February 2023, the Secretary of State's office has received more than

9,000 reports of potential fraudulent filings and of those about 5,700 have been completed

and 2,300 are still under review. So the thing is, they're still watching it because the reports

are still coming in and, you know, it's more expensive to just start up now. You can't file

to start up, you know, 100 new companies means that's 100 times 50. So that can be a small investment

for a fraudster. But the thing is, you know, that Secretary of State's office is still looking

into this. So that that continues and I'll probably continue to ask that question.

Tamar, just to switch gears a little bit, you had a busy day Monday. You also worked on a story

about layoffs coming potential large number of layoffs at first bank, which was recently acquired

by PNC bank. Tamar, what's the latest information there as far as potential layoffs at first bank?

Yeah. So PNC actually filed a war notice, which is that the workers, you know, the notification,

part of the notification act, to help the states work with these companies when there's large

layoffs to help them help the employees find new jobs. But anyway, this notice was filed

what was made public on Monday. And for PNC said that at, you know, maximum 777 employees at first

bank would be laid off by June 30th. And I am actually, since we were talking on Monday,

I'm still getting some of that information. But I have learned that some of those employees are

being offered jobs. So it's not like all those people are losing those jobs right away. We're

hearing that that's the maximum number. Hopefully a bunch of those people will continue to work

at the new PNC, which did acquire first bank earlier this year. I don't know if we'll be able to

get a number in time. But, you know, I'll continue to follow the story as the integration continues

for the companies that is expected to probably wrap up in mid-June. I know I think you're a customer.

David and they have posted online that customers, first bank customers will see all their accounts

be converted to PNC starting June 18th. So that, you know, and after all that happens, you know,

they'll have some probably some final numbers about how many workers got laid off. But they are

planning to keep several, you know, you know, retail folks who work with customers are being

retained apparently. But I'm still learning more information. So that's all I've got for now.

Read my story on that. I'm sure more on that as it develops though, right? Right. All right,

Tamra. Last thing you are hosting one of our panels at Colorado Sun Fest, which is May 1st

at the University of Denver. You have been following the AI law in Colorado for, I would say,

years now, Tamra, you're hosting an AI panel. Tell our listeners what that's going to be about and

kind of the cool feature that you've got coming. Sure. So the, yes, the AI law will be briefly touched

upon. But as anyone who is following that closely, there's been little change to it. So that's

going into effect also in June. So that's why I thought for my session this year at Sun Fest,

I would focus on, well, what, what sort of artificial intelligence are we already being, you know,

is already in our lives today? And so I found a couple of local Colorado companies in the AI space.

One of them happens to be a company called Dreamface and it's run by a University of Denver

professor and he has, his team has basically built a robot that is trained on AI and is already

working with residents at senior facilities to help with some of the tasks of, you know, conducting

the yoga session or even just interacting and talking to folks who, you know, when, when staff,

when there's not enough staff to talk about everything. So it should be interesting because he will

be bringing the robot with him. So please come to my session. I think it's at 1130 on May 1st

and you will get to meet the robots and see how it works and, you know, see some other demos

from Colorado companies. She covers business. She covers technology. She does a little bit of

everything here at the Colorado Sun. Tamra Chung always appreciate catching up with you. Look

forward to the stories coming up and also our session on May 1st. I hope to see everyone and

just, you know, if you're listening to this, come up and introduce yourself. I mean, I think that's

the fun thing about SunFest, you know, the reporters and editors are all there and you can just ask

questions or talk about our stories or suggest some. So anyway, but yes, thanks. Thanks everyone

for listening, I guess. Thanks for listening. And finally, here are a few stories that you should

know about today. The St. Vrain and left-hand water conservancy district in Longmont agree to give

up a 55-year-old right to build an on-channel reservoir on St. Vrain Creek. The move comes after

water officials decided they will instead seek out other methods to store a large water break,

including the use of gravel pits. State lawmakers are weighing on a bill that would place new

limits on how government agencies access and use data collected by automated license plate readers.

The technology relies on cameras that long the movements of vehicles as they pass by.

The legislation would bar government officials from sharing the data with outside jurisdictions

with some exceptions. The Bureau of Reclamation says it could reduce late-powel water releases

to 6 million acre feet, the lowest amount in decades. It also intends to shore up water

storing like-powel by releasing additional water from flaming gorge on the Utah Wyoming border.

The decisions could raise the specter of forced water cuts in states including Colorado.

To read these stories and much more, visit our website, ColoradoSun.com.

As an award-winning non-profit news outlet, we take our mission of credible independent journalism

seriously, and you can check out our trust indicators at ColoradoSun.com-slashethics.

Our music is by the Denver-based Matt Skellinger Group, a link to their music is in our show notes,

and a special thanks to Swallow Hill music. I'm David Krause, see you next time.