Colorado Telemarketing No-Call List

There is no doubt that Bighorn’s most popular accomplishment has been creating the Colorado Telemarketing No-Call List. Finding a way for people to avoid annoying telephone solicitations in their homes fit perfectly within Bighorn’s mission. Our goal is to create common-sense public policy solutions in an efficient way to improve the quality of life for the people of Colorado. Creating an effective telemarketing no-call list proved to be a difficult job and we made mistakes along the way, but the payoff was worth it -- a more peaceful dinner hour for millions of Coloradans.

The idea for a no-call list had been around for a while. When Governor Bill Owens was a state senator in the eighties he worked to pass an early version of a no-call list. From early on, Senator Steve Johnson, (R-Ft. Collins) was a tireless supporter of a no-call list but every year his sponsoring legislation went down in defeat. The telemarketing firms that use telemarketing to sell goods and services to the public were tenacious opponents of a no-call list despite overwhelming public support to stop the unwanted calls.

Bighorn took a new approach to the problem. First we used a best practices approach to study other state’s experience and design a no-call list tailored to Colorado. Instead of creating a costly new division of state government, we put the list online and contracted the service out to a private vendor. In place of using tax dollars to pay for the service, the vendor charges telemarketers a reasonable amount every year to access the list and conduct telemarketing in the state. This new way of doing business for government reflects part of Bighorn’s vision; use market-based solutions wherever possible to be more efficient and keep the cost of government low.

Just as important as the design of the no-call list was the approach to winning in the legislature. To break the grip of the telemarketing special interests, Bighorn built a website where average Colorado citizens could show their support and be the first in line to be on the telemarketing no-call list. Soon this website had 40,000 supporters from all around the state. Bighorn was also willing to play “hard ball” to get the no-call list passed. We let the public know which elected officials supported the no-call list and which legislators were in the pockets of the telemarketers. This approach came as a shock to some legislators – they had never seen an organization use traditional political muscle to support an idea for the public good.

The no-call list experience also showed how important it is to develop and work with a non-partisan team. Key Republican legislators like Senator Ken Chlouber, Rep. Mark Larson and Rep. Al White got the votes needed to make the list a reality. Democrat Attorney General Ken Salazar defended the list successfully in federal court when the telemarketers tried to have the law overturned.

Today, there are over two million registered Colorado phone numbers on the no-call list. The list has been expanded to include cellular phones and fax machines. The Attorney General’s office uses a mostly automated system to enforce the no-call list nationwide. The entire system operates at a fraction of the cost in most states and when the federal government developed its own telemarketing no-call list, they incorporated most of the ideas from Colorado.

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