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DENVER After a constituent called Colorado state Rep. Alex Valdez last spring and complained that some local businesses weren’t accepting cash, the Denver Democrat started noticing cashless businesses everywhere, from restaurants to his local coffee shop.
Valdez thought refusing cash due to the COVID-19 pandemic made no sense, as merchants were still willing to touch debit and credit cards. And he feared such policies could shut out people without bank accounts, a group that’s disproportionately low-income, Black and Hispanic.
So this year Valdez sponsored a bill that would require retailers to accept cash, with a few exceptions. “We really just need to reaffirm that cash is currency,” he said.