Halfway home with plenty still on table
Health care, paid family leave, guns among unanswered questions
Colorado’s 120-day legislative session reached the halfway point Saturday, and it will be a sprint to the finish for lawmakers, who have yet to take on many of the year’s toughest decisions.
They already have taken care of at least one session-defining bill: abolishing the death penalty. They also have passed or are close to passing a slew of other bills that promise reforms on health care, business, immigration and the environment.
But the to-do list is much longer. Health care affordability. Paid family leave. Vaccines. Guns. And hundreds of other bills still pending.
A lot can be accomplished in 60 days, but the Democrats, who control every level of state government in Colorado, may need close to every minute.
“I don’t love having everything stacked up at the end, but it’s not always in my control,” House Speaker KC Becker told reporters last week. “But I think at the end of the day, people are going to be voting on the bills based on the merit, and the timing is secondary.”
Here is a look at eight big questions that will largely shape the Capitol conversation between now and May — the last of which could overshadow all of the others.
Will Colorado become the second state to adopt a state public option for health insurance?
The buildup to a proposal to create a new insurance option for Coloradans on the individual marketplace has already been one of the most contentious of the 2020 legislative session, and the bill’s unveiling Thursday was no different. As the bill’s sponsors touted the benefits of more competition and reduced costs, the Colorado Hospital Association and Republican lawmakers decried a proposal they said would have unintended consequences.
Bill sponsors are calling their proposal a “Colorado Option” that’s a hybrid rather than a strictly publicly run model, and they say they’re willing to make more compromises. The question will be whether they can win over moderate Democrats and Republicans — particularly in the Senate, where Democrats have only a narrow majority — amid intense lobbying by the hospital industry.
What other health care reforms might pass?
Democratic lawmakers have focused much of their legislation on health care affordability — an issue that consistently tops with voters — for the second consecutive year. Other bills related to transparency and health access are making their way through the two chambers, including ones aimed at drug cost transparency to try to get a handle on rising prices.
A bill tightening vaccine exemptions made its way through the Senate and is headed to the House, where it’s expected to pass after gaining Gov. Jared Polis’ support.
Lawmakers also are tackling another issue they brought up last year: reducing teen vaping by banning flavored products and raising the age to buy tobacco products to 21. While the latter has broad bipartisan support, the flavor ban proposal has garnered mixed reviews, with small-business groups saying it would cause them to go out of business.
The governor is backing a vaping and tobacco tax measure for the November ballot after a failed attempt in the legislature last year, but a bill is still a possibility, too.
Democratic lawmakers have also introduced bills this session that would require more coverage from health insurance companies, such as for an annual mental health wellness exam and infertility treatment.
Will lawmakers f inally pass a paid family leave program?
Colorado Democrats entered the 2019 legislative session thinking their bill to create a statewide paid family and medical leave program would, on its fifth try, finally pass. Well, that blew up, and so they vowed to come back in 2020 for a sixth attempt.
This year’s bill was supposed to be introduced Feb. 24. Then two of its four sponsors backed out, and the coalition of progressive advocates who have pushed so long for the bill started to publicly criticize it.
Democrats insist they still plan to pass a bill this year. The governor wants to make it happen, and so do the many lawmakers who’ve campaigned on it — for years, in some cases.
But to pass a bill, they may have to play a bit of whack-a-mole; there are a lot of different groups and people who have specific ideas about what the bill should look like, and, if recent history is any indicator, it may be impossible to satisfy one constituency without angering another. Democrats may have to come to peace with that if they are to pass this policy.
Last year, Colorado passed its f irst gun reform since 2013. Can it pass more this year?
Ask the Democrats behind two new proposed gun reforms, and they will tell you that both are common-sense measures that shouldn’t be controversial. Indeed, polling indicates public support for both of the bills. But it’s also true that if you mess with gun policy in any way, however minute, you’re bound to catch blowback from Republican lawmakers and the gun lobby that backs them.
One of this year’s proposals would require gun owners to securely store their firearms. The point is to prevent kids from accessing guns, whether intentionally or by accident. The other proposal would require anyone whose gun is lost or stolen to report that to authorities within a few days. Both bills propose new criminal penalties.
Republicans are going to fight these vigorously. Gun-control advocates, who rallied Friday at the Capitol, may match or surpass that vigor. One or both of these bills could pass, but it’s safe to assume a whole lot of debate and spectacle will come first.
Can lawmakers agree on a transportation funding plan?
The clock is ticking for Democrats and Republicans to come to some kind of agreement this session on a package deal to fund transportation projects in Colorado. There’s a massive backlog of existing needs, and many for the future.
The problem has always been that the two parties have dramatically different ideas for how to find a source of revenue for transportation that’s sustainable for the long term.
Because Democrats control state government, there are a number of things they could do this session, with or without GOP support. But they insist they want to do this on bipartisan lines. They have a couple months left to figure out if that’s possible. If it isn’t, voters may get their say on this, one way or another, in November.
What’s next for Colorado’s chronically underfunded public schools?
Education funding is always an issue for the Colorado legislature; the state ranks among the lowest in the nation when it comes to teachers’ pay. It’s not clear that the legislature will be able to come to a solution this year that helps all 178 school districts, but House Majority Leader Alec Garnett, a Democrat from Denver, believes the state is closer than it has ever been on finding new ways to finance K-12 education.
An interim committee earlier this year didn’t produce any legislation because of a lack of consensus, but lawmakers are discussing a bill that could levy property tax rates to get schools more money. Lawmakers have also introduced bills to fund teacher pay raises and put more money into grant programs.
Meanwhile, a coalition of nonprofits is working on putting the question in voters’ hands, asking them to hike taxes on the rich and use half the money on schools.
Will lawmakers agree on wolves or leave it to voters?
Colorado had the longest ballot in the country in 2018, and it may win that distinction again in November. And several potential ballot measures will hinge on decisions made at the Capitol this year.
One ballot initiative proposes a reintroduction of wolves into the state, but it’s possibly counteracted by a bill that Sen. Kerry Donovan, a Democrat from Vail, has introduced. Donovan said it’s unlikely both can move forward, and her bill includes plans for managing a population of wolves that evidence shows are already back in the state.
It might be best to handle this with a bill, Donovan argues, because the language of a ballot measure can’t be easily amended and there’s more room for planning.
“A bill can be responsive to changing realities,” she said.
What does coronavirus mean for state government?
Colorado, the governor has stressed, should not be in panic mode over coronavirus.
Lawmakers aren’t freaking out yet, either. But they are in talks about protocols for if and when coronavirus spreads to the point that it’s a public health hazard to have the Capitol open for business. Should that happen, countless bills could be affected in some fashion.
State Sen. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, said on the Senate floor Friday: “Colorado General Assembly needs to not panic, but to take very seriously that this is a matter of serious public health concern.”