November election could be filled with legislative loose ends

Rebecca Boyle, (Bio) rboyle@fortcollinsnow.com
May 11, 2008

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After all the worries about the legislative session lasting until the last second, lawmakers wrapped up their work Tuesday night, with Democrats and Republicans each claiming victory for key reforms.

Education and the environment were among the session's big winners, while transportation and the state's tangled constitution were left behind.

Now that lawmakers are headed home for the year, attention turns to the November ballot, where legislators and residents will ask voters to do things that didn't get done under the dome.

High on the list is an effort to unravel the constitutional knot created by the Taxpayers' Bill of Rights, which limits state spending, and Amendment 23, which requires increased spending on education.

Fort Collins' GOP Sen. Steve Johnson and House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, tried to pass a bill that would have asked voters to repeal the spending increases in Amendment 23 and allow the state to keep revenue it collects over the TABOR limit. But Republicans said from the outset that they wouldn't support it, and without a two-thirds majority in both chambers, the measure was doomed.

Romanoff took it off the table on Monday and said he would try to get it on the ballot by circulating petitions instead.

Another major ballot measure is a plan backed by Gov. Bill Ritter that would remove a tax credit for the oil and gas industry and use the extra money for a scholarship fund for students attending Colorado colleges and universities.

Many Republicans and business leaders have said they're worried the industry will be hurt by higher taxes and stricter rules, and that can hurt the state's economy.

At the last minute, Republicans and one Democrat tried to pass a measure that would have called for studying the fiscal impact of reforms on the oil and gas industry, which the Colorado School of Mines recently said was worth $23 billion to Colorado's economy.

Transportation was the most glaring omission from the slate of bills to be published from this session. Earlier in the year, lawmakers bandied about several transportation ideas, including increasing vehicle registration fees and adding toll lanes to Interstate 70 to alleviate congestion. An issue Gov. Bill Ritter's office termed "a quiet crisis" saw few solutions this year, and Ritter said in a previous interview that transportation was one of many marathon issues he's still wrangling with.

Here are some other highlights from this year's legislative session:

« Uranium mining reform

Northern Colorado lawmakers delivered on a promise to reform the state's oversight of uranium mining. Fort Collins Reps. John Kefalas and Randy Fischer joined with fellow Democrat Sen. Bob Bacon and Johnson and carried a bill that will strengthen regulations governing the in-situ extraction process.

The lawmakers responded to concerns from residents worried about a proposed uranium mine in northwest Weld County, about 13 miles from Fort Collins.

« Education reform

A bipartisan group of lawmakers shepherded three significant education reform bills through the legislature, although other sweeping reforms died at the last minute.

In one measure, legislators voted to bring K-12 education requirements in line with college admission requirements. Lawmakers also voted to leverage money from state-owned lands to pay for construction projects at crumbling schools. The plan would use $30 million to $40 million of revenue each year from School Trust Lands along with matching funds to generate nearly $1 billion to repair existing schools or to build new ones.

The last reform, sponsored by Rep. Jim Riesberg, D-Greeley, uses federal mineral lease money to pay for construction projects at colleges and universities.

Other attempts to reform the Colorado Student Assessment Program didn't make it, however.

« Non-teetotaling football fans win

Coloradans will be able to buy alcohol on Sundays, starting July 6. Lawmakers decided to remove the state's decades-old blue law preventing the sale of spirits on the Sabbath, a move that liquor stores said would raise millions of dollars -- and therefore plenty more state tax revenue. Grocery stores fought the measure. They currently have a monopoly on 3.2-percent alcohol beer for sale on Sundays. The grocery lobby also failed to get a bill passed that would have let the stores sell wine or liquor.

That's a wrap

The Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance, the lobbying arm of the Greeley, Loveland and Fort Collins chambers of commerce, is hosting its final legislative breakfast on Monday at American Eagle Distributing, 3800 Clydesdale Parkway, Loveland. The breakfast is $15 and registration begins at 7:15 a.m., with the program running from 7:30 to 9:30. Legislators confirmed for the event include Bacon, Johnson, and fellow Sen. Scott Renfroe, R-Greeley; and Kefalas, Fischer, Riesberg and fellow Reps. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, Don Marostica, R-Loveland, Dianne Primavera, D-Broomfield, and Glenn Vaad, R-Mead.