2009 ANNUAL REPORT. Colorado Public Interest Research Group & CoPIRG Foundation. Consumer Protection: Ending Credit Card Abuses (pages 1-2)

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1 Colorado Public Interest Research Group & CoPIRG Foundation Consumer Protection: Ending Credit Card Abuses (pages 1-2) Health Care Reform: The Push To Reduce Costs (pages 5-6) Product Safety: Testing For Unsafe Toys (page 7) 2009 ANNUAL REPORT

2 Consumer Protection: Ending Credit Card Abuses New Law Curbs Gotcha Fees Coloradans will no longer be vulnerable to many of the credit card industry s worst anti-consumer practices, thanks to a new law that implements reforms CoPIRG has advocated for nearly two decades. The law the Credit CARD Act was signed into law by President Obama on May 22. The new law bans credit card companies from retroactively hiking rates on existing balances, prohibits universal default in the first year of a contract (the practice in which a card company changes the terms of a contract if it finds a new negative mark on a customer s credit report), and protects college students from many of the predatory marketing schemes witnessed on campuses in recent years. The Credit CARD Act s passage marked a long-overdue victory for consumers. As the credit card industry s influence on Capitol Hill waned in the aftermath of the financial crisis, CoPIRG took advantage of the new climate to organize and advocate for the reforms, which will begin to level the playing field for consumers. Staff State Director Danny Katz gives Sen. Mark Udall a thank-you card for his leadership. The card was signed by hundreds of CoPIRG members, and included their credit card horror stories. CoPIRG

3 The credit card industry fought reform, arguing that new restrictions on its business would hurt families who depend on credit cards in a tough economy. To counter their bogus argument, we presented Colorado s congressional delegation with more than 30 stories from CoPIRG e-activists who had been negatively affected by the bad practices of their card companies. One e-activist wrote, For the last year my rates have jumped four times and I pay my bill off every month. This is crazy! I can t imagine what people who don t are having to put up with. CoPIRG s federal consumer advocate, Ed Mierzwinski, led our push on Capitol Hill. Mierzwinkski, who has worked to reform the banking industry for 20 years, made our case in the media, appearing on PBS and CNN and in the coverage of The New York Times. Sen. Udall Champions The Effort Colorado s Sen. Mark Udall, has been a champion for consumers on credit card issues since his first days in Congress. With the bill coming to a vote in the U.S. Senate, CoPIRG State Director Danny Katz armed Sen. Udall with the stories he needed to successfully lobby his peers, including fellow Colorado senator, Michael Bennet, to support the bill. After the bill was passed, many credit card companies decided to implement large rate increases before most of the law went into effect in February CoPIRG joined Sen. Udall in an effort to stop them from exploiting this loophole by speeding up the implementation process. OUR COALITION Our online e-activist network helped push the bill over the top and secure the support of Sen. Michael Bennet. More than 100 activists shared credit card horror stories and signed our thank-you card. Page 2

4 Public Transportation: Investments Boost Economy Transit Creates Jobs For Colorado In January 2009, President Obama proposed sweeping investments in our country s infrastructure to create jobs and boost the economy as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act including renewed support for public transportation. Predictably, the road-building lobby pushed Congress to direct stimulus spending to new road construction and road-widening projects. CoPIRG made the case to prioritize spending on public transit over more roads. Highway expansion will only continue to promote an inefficient, costly and oil-dependent transportation system, and dollar-for-dollar it does not create as many jobs as investment in public transportation. In fact, investments in public transportation create approximately twice as many jobs as investments in road projects. Doubling Our Investment In Transit To make our case, CoPIRG built a coalition that included environmentalists, public health professionals, unions, recreational sports groups and transit agencies, and we brought our allies along as we met with every member of the Colorado congressional delegation. After our meetings, Rep. Ed Perlmutter (Golden) introduced an amendment to double the amount of public transportation funding. CoPIRG State Director Danny Katz went to work on Capitol Hill in the days before Congress voted to build support for Rep. Perlmutter s amendment. The final version of the recovery package included $16 billion for public transportation, the largest single investment in public transportation and rail that Congress has ever made. CoPIRG s hard-hitting reports held the state accountable for spending the money efficiently and transparently. Access CoPIRG reports at CoPIRG

5 Building Transit, Focusing On Transparency CoPIRG worked to ensure the new funds for transit were spent effectively and transparently in Colorado. Katz helped persuade the Denver regional planning body to direct a portion of the funds to the construction of Denver s light-rail system, FasTracks. In July, CoPIRG released a report analyzing how well the state tracked the economic recovery funds. The governor s office implemented many of our suggestions to boost transparency, including more clearly labeling when pages are updated and more information on contracts online. Later that summer, CoPIRG released another report showing that while Colorado made smart choices in prioritizing spending on the repair of existing roads and bridges, the state missed an opportunity to maximize its investment in job-producing public transportation projects. Following the release of the report, Katz met with the director of the Colorado Department of Transportation to urge a complete focus on repairing infrastructure and building intercity transit. Staff State Director Danny Katz releases a report showing that communities in the Denver metro area would spend less of their income on transportation if they had better public transportation options. Page 4

6 Health Care Reform: The Push To Reduce Costs Health Care Costs Skyrocketing On Jan. 28, CoPIRG released Health Care in Crisis, a report which found that premiums and deductibles for Colorado residents were expected to nearly double by 2016 due to high costs and wasteful spending. For example, doctors spend 45 minutes on paperwork for every hour they spend with patients. In addition, our fee-for-service system encourages doctors to perform unnecessary and costly procedures, and punishes doctors who spend time on preventive care, which is the cheapest way to keep patients healthy. Increased competition between insurance plans would also benefit consumers. Despite our research, the health care insurance industry and the national Chamber of Commerce mobilized to kill the health care bills, spending $1.4 million a day. So we countered them with a strong grassroots push. We built a large coalition of small businesses, and mobilized them to write opinion pieces in newspapers and lobby Colorado s congressional delegation. We also mobilized our thousands of e-activists to hold our decision-makers feet to the fire. Staff Health Care Associate Aaron Segel releases a report on the impact that health care costs are having on small businesses. CoPIRG mobilized small businesses across the state, from Durango to Grand Junction, to Fort Collins, to Denver. CoPIRG

7 Report: The $3 Trillion Question Research Identifies Best Cost-Saving Solutions On Aug. 5, we released a report, The $3 Trillion Question, that quantified the cost savings of specific health care reforms. For example, we found that the state of Colorado could save $5.03 billion if we created a more streamlined billing system, $15.82 billion if we switched away from a fee-for-service system to one that rewards preventive care and $3.31 billion if we created a public option to compete in the marketplace. The Congressional Budget Office echoed our research, estimating reform can save $1.2 trillion over the next 20 years. In addition, we surveyed small businesses across the state and released a report in Grand Junction, Colorado Springs and Denver highlighting what they wanted to see in health care reform. We followed that with a report we released in Fort Collins and Denver on specific solutions that would help small business owners afford health care, such as the creation of a health care, insurance marketplace. Many of our solutions were adopted in the bills Congress considered last fall. And after a yearlong battle to make health care more affordable, in March 2010, President Obama signed the nation s first comprehensive health care reform into law. Learn more about our health care reform campaign, and read all of the findings of CoPIRG Foundation s The $3 Trillion Question report on our Web site. Page 6

8 Product Safety: Removing Dangerous Toys From Shelves New Tool Helps Parents Avoid Hazards On Nov. 24, CoPIRG released its 24th annual Trouble in Toyland report educating consumers about the potentially dangerous toys that we found on toy shelves and ways to avoid them. Several toys we mentioned in the report have since been recalled by the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC). In addition to the report, we released a new interactive mobile application that allows parents to view and make updates to our list of potentially dangerous toys. Its aim is to give consumers the ability to make informed decisions when purchasing products, as well as report suspect toys to the CPSC. CoPIRG s report was covered by the Denver Post, Durango Herald, Fort Collins Coloradoan and Grand Junction Sentinel, along with several TV outlets. KMGH Katz releasing Trouble in Toyland report highlighting dangerous toys. CoPIRG held events in Pueblo, Colorado Springs, Grand Junction and Denver, generating media coverage from 21 state outlets. Join the toy safety dialog online to stay up to date on which toxic toys to avoid, visit us online at toysafety.mobi or CoPIRG

9 Energy Efficiency: Pushing Utilities To Reduce Use CoPIRG Builds Support Across The State The cheapest, easiest and quickest way to save money and stop global warming is to invest in energy efficiency. Unfortunately, utilities across the state do not have a financial incentive to help customers invest in ugrades to help them use less energy. Consequently, Colorado consumers miss out, unnecessarily wasting money on high energy bills and contributing more to global warming. CoPIRG Associate Aaron Segel took our message to the Capitol and hosted a forum on the benefits of energy efficiency. The forum brought in almost a quarter of the state Legislature to hear presentations from the Public Utilities Commission and Governor s Energy Office as well as partner groups that have studied the job creation potential of energy efficiency standards. We will be working to turn our education into advocacy and pass strong energy efficiency standards in the coming years. Staff COPIRG Associate Aaron Segel hosts a quarter of the state s legislators at an energy forum. Where we made the case for strong statewide standards for utilities to reduce energy use. Learn more on our Web site, about the specifics of efficiency and how lawmakers can level the playing field. Page 84

10 CoPIRG Supporters Citizen support is the cornerstone of Colorado Public Interest Research Group. Thousands of Colorado citizens supported CoPIRG by making membership contributions in The members listed below were particularly generous in backing the organization s research and advocacy. Names that appear in italics denote our monthly supporters. These members provide stability to the organization s resources through our monthly giving program. Development Committee Development Committee members supported CoPIRG with contributions of $500 or more. Patrons Patrons supported CoPIRG with contributions of $250 - $499. Foundations CoPIRG Foundation, a 501(c)(3) organization, conducts research and public education on emerging public interest issues. Contributions to CoPIRG Foundation are tax-deductible. CoPIRG Foundation received recent grants from: Educational Foundation of America Edwards Mother Earth Foundation CoPIRG

11 Financial Information Charts reflect Fiscal Year 2009 financial information for CoPIRG and CoPIRG Foundation. FY09 Income Citizen Contributions 70% Foundation Grants 27% Other 3% FY09 Expenses Program 79% Fundraising 17% Administration 4% FY09 Program Expenses 21st Century Transit 35% Affordable, Dependable Health Care 30% Energy Solutions 16% Financial Privacy and Security 10% Toxics/Democracy/Government Transparency 9% PLANNED GIVING CoPIRG and CoPIRG Foundation gratefully accept bequests, beneficiary designations of IRAs and life insurance, and gifts of securities to support our work. Your gift will assure a legacy of activism and education that will stand up to powerful interests and revitalize participation in our democracy for decades to come. For more information, call or send an to plannedgiving@copirg.org. Page 10

12 Dear CoPIRG member, After decades of federal inaction, we moved forward extraordinary legislation to reduce health care costs, reform our financial system to protect consumers over banks, and move to a 21st century transportation system that is clean and efficient. Danny Katz State Director Despite our progress, there are still obstacles to overcome. The banks, health insurance providers and utilities will be working to impede progress nationally and locally. That s why we are expanding our reach in Colorado. We are expanding our outreach program, adding staff and developing a core of trained activists so that regardless of the issue, we ll be there to spring into action. Using our time-tested tools of investigative research, hard-hitting advocacy and grassroots mobilization, we can build a more sustainable and just Colorado. Colorado Public Interest Research Group 1536 Wynkoop St., Ste. 100 Denver, CO Address Service Requested 2009 ANNUAL REPORT CoPIRG Staff (partial list) Aaron Segel Health Care Associate Ed Mierzwinski Federal Consumer Program Director Phineas Baxandall Senior Analyst for Tax & Budget Policy NONPROFIT ORG U.S. POSTAGE PAID BROCKTON, MA Permit No. 430