State lawmakers reach final 10 days
Transportation and PERA among five major issues remaining
This session, more so than most years, Colorado lawmakers saved the best for last.
With 10 days left in the 2018 session when lawmakers return Monday, the most significant pieces of legislation remain unresolved because of partisan differences — and the decisions to come will affect everyone in the state.
The General Assembly’s to-do list includes: a measure to stabilize the crippled state pension system that covers 1 in 10 Coloradans; an effort to pump hundreds of millions of dollars into improving the state’s roads and highways; the renewal of a commission tasked with defending civil rights; two ballot measures that revamp how political districts are drawn; and more.
At the same time, Democrats in the
state Senate are again pushing to expel a Republican lawmaker for harassment after new credible allegations surface. The Democrats’ action amplifies the partisan tension in the Capitol.
House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-denver, downplayed concerns that lawmakers won’t finish their work, but she acknowledged that the “legislative session has been pretty intense from the beginning, … and it will be intense until the end.”
Often, lawmakers punt the toughest decisions to the end, but legislative leaders and lobbyists suggest the stakes for the final sprint this year are greater than usual.
The House and Senate filed more than 700 bills through Friday and more than 300 bills remain in play ahead of the May 9 adjournment, according to Colorado Capitol Watch, an independent bill-tracking service. Gov. John Hickenlooper has signed 178 so far.
The term-limited Democrat is cautious about what to expect. “I think we are guardedly optimistic that they are going to find compromises on all this,” he said.
The big-ticket items — combined with a plethora of partisan election-year bills still on the calendar and mounting teacher protests — guarantee a frenzy in the final days. Here are the big-ticket items to watch in the final days.
Who should pay to stabilize the state’s underfunded pension system?
The governor, the Democratic-controlled House and the Republican-led Senate all have different ideas on how to address the Public Employees’ Retirement Association, which has a funding gap estimated at $32.2 billion to $50.8 billion.
The two chambers agreed to put $225 million in taxpayer dollars toward PERA for at least the next fiscal year. The House would not ask state em- ployees to contribute more to the system, but the Senate version calls for a 3 percentage point hike.
Another sticking point is a Senate proposal to expand a 401(k)-like option to all public employees covered by the pension. Currently, only certain employees are eligible, with teachers and local government workers excluded.
Either way, public employees and retirees — including teachers — are expected to see a decrease in benefits, a jump in the retirement age and a two-year pause on annual cost-of-living raises that will then be capped at a lower rate. But the fine print in Senate Bill 200 is still being negotiated.
The top issue — transportation money — remains in limbo
When Republicans’ Senate Bill 1 — their plan to pay for part of the billions in needed road repairs over the next decade — passed the state Senate in a unanimous vote in March after a last-minute compromise with Democrats, it looked like a kumbaya moment.
The measure calls for $495 million to be allocated this year for transportation needs and creates a mechanism for the legislature to ask voters in 2019 to approve a package that dedicates $250 million annually to cover $3.5 billion in bonds.
But while Senate Democrats jumped on board, their counterparts in the House — which the party controls — have been anything but enthusiastic.
House Democrats say they are committed to finding a compromise but want to see some changes, including a larger commitment to mass-transit options.
“The question is: How do we invest both in transportation and also in education without pitting them against each other?” said Rep. Faith Winter, D-westminster.
Senate President Kevin Grantham, R-cañon City, has said that funding for education and transportation should be kept apart.
No compromise in sight with civil rights commission
At the center of a pending case before the U.S. Supreme Court is the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, and a bill to renew the panel has been a hot potato at the legislature for months.
Democrats and Republicans have deep disagreements about the commission’s role and what it should look like.
House Bill 1256, which would renew the commission, is making its way through the Gop-controlled Senate, where Republicans are trying to change who appoints members of the panel, its size and its political makeup.
Some Democrats are having none of it, saying the changes would just weaken the commission. “We shouldn’t play politics with our civil rights,” said Rep. Leslie Herod, D-denver.
Republicans have signaled they are open to compromise, and a bipartisan deal passed the Senate on Friday — only to be quickly shot down by House Democrats, who say the proposed changes go too far. If there was a middle ground in sight, it seems to have evaporated.
“It is our hope, wish, desire that the House be willing to go to conference committee,” said Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican who is leading the GOP effort to change the panel.
High bar for contentious political issue
In addition to legislation, Colorado lawmakers want to put two measures on the November ballot to ban gerrymandering.
The question about how states redraw political boundaries is one of the most contentious political issues — and the effort is coming at the last minute. In three of the last four reapportionment debates, the map fights went to the Colorado Supreme Court to decide.
The two concurrent resolutions task nonpartisan staffers to draw the maps and reshape the independent commissions that approve the maps to add more unaffiliated voters to the process. But to refer the measures to the ballot, lawmakers will need twothirds’ support in each chamber, a difficult threshold, even with support from leadership.
Opioids and mental health top health care agenda
A handful of major health care bills are still working their way through the legislative process, including a package of bills related to the state’s opioid crisis and another yet-to-be introduced measure regarding firearms and mental health.
A bill to impose sevenday limits for most initial opioid prescriptions and another measure to cover residential treatment with the state’s Medicaid program are still outstanding, but they appear poised for passage.
On the issue of mental health, Assistant House Minority Leader Alec Garnett, D-denver, plans to introduce a “red flag” bill that would allow Colorado judges to seize guns from people they deem to be a threat to themselves or others.
Whether a measure related to guns can win Republican support is the question. But several prominent GOP leaders support the concept: U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, Douglas County Sheriff Tony Spurlock and 18th Judicial District Attorney George Brauchler.
This beer bill is not a party
Two years ago, lawmakers rushed a major rewrite of the state’s alcohol laws to the governor in the final days of the session. The measure, Senate Bill 243, allowed grocery and convenience store chains to sell alcohol at more than one location and permitted them to sell full-strength beer and wine.
Now, the liquor stores who lost the “beer war” want to add new restrictions before the provisions take effect in January, in part to protect local liquor stores that are expected to take a hit in sales.
It took arm-twisting for the measure to survive its first hearing, and it still needs votes in the Senate and House before it would move to the governor.