Legislature to see familiar issues

Expect proposals on guns, mental health, human composting

Like pretty much anything else, the COVID-19 pandemic derailed numerous bills in the Colorado legislature last year. And while lawmakers say their priority for the 2021 legislative session — which resumes Tuesday — will be addressing the ongoing pandemic-related needs of Coloradans, they can expect to see several familiar pieces of possible policy.

Democratic Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg said this session won’t just be about “how do we stop the bleeding or how do we get back to normal, but how do we actually get back to a place or build back to a place where our state is strong, where our state is more equitable, more resilient for the next crisis that’s potentially around the corner.”

His party controls both chambers of the General Assembly, and The Post explained earlier this year what the main priorities will be.

But it’s also time to highlight a few of the bills that’ll be making a repeat appearance.

Human composting: Washington state became the first in the nation to allow for “natural organic reduction” as an after-death option; that is, turning your remains into soil.

Sponsors of the returning bill say the method is considered more environmentally sustainable and is less costly and they want to make it a legal option in Colorado.

Arvada Democratic Rep. Brianna Titone is bringing back the bill with her fellow sponsors from last year, and said she has been getting emails from people who are very interested in seeing this bill become law.

“Had the pandemic been as bad as things were projected to be back in March and April, having an additional option for your loved ones would be beneficial,” said Delta Republican Rep. Matt Soper, who is also sponsoring the bill.

Mental health wellness exams:

Despite pushback from Gov. Jared Polis last year, a Democrat is insistent that mental health wellness exams should be covered by insurance just like physical exams.

Polis said last year he wouldn’t sign any more new insurance mandates, but Commerce City Rep. Dafna Michaelson Jenet said covering mental health exams is not a new mandate, but rather another step toward parity.

“My goal is to turn around the suicide rate. I want to see that number going down … And the only way to do that is through regular mental health wellness and making sure that we start doing things to make mental health care not only accessible but stigmafree,” said Michaelson Jenet, who is still negotiating with Polis’ office.

Gun bills

Last year’s attempts to pass gun control legislation were killed in committee because of COVID, and Democrats are bringing back two bills that would require people to report lost or stolen firearms, and safely store guns in homes.

Sponsors of the safe storage bill expect it to be almost identical to last year’s bill. Gun owners would have to secure their firearms and gun stores or dealers would be mandated to provide locking devices when they sell or transfer any guns. Individuals who violate the law, if passed, could face a misdemeanor charge, but Democratic sponsor Rep. Kyle Mullica of Thornton said the point of the bill is to change behavior, not necessarily punish people.

Both bills will likely be met with opposition from Republicans, which Rep. Tom Sullivan expects. Sullivan, a Democrat from Centennial whose son was killed in the Aurora theater shooting, believes these two bills are necessary — in addition to one that would set up mandatory waiting periods.

“Gun violence is one issue our communities talk about every single day,” he said.

Public option

One of the most contentious bills of the 2020 session was the creation of a hybrid public health insurance option for people who buy their own insurance on the individual or small-group markets.

But as legislators began to wrap up a COVID-shortened session and dropped bills with high fiscal notes, the public option bill suffered the same fate. This year, sponsors plan to bring it back in a different form.

Democratic Rep. Dylan Roberts of Avon called it a “new concept” that he expects will get less pushback — mostly because the proposal is coming from the health care industry itself.

He doesn’t necessarily anticipate the industry will be completely supportive, but the groups are having better dialogue than before, he said.

The bill, expected to be introduced next month, is twopronged: In the first phase, the state would provide targets for reducing the cost of insurance premiums in 2023 and 2024. Insurance companies will be able to work with hospitals, pharmaceutical companies and others to negotiate premiums.

If they don’t meet those goals, then the state will create a government health insurance plan, the “Colorado Health Insurance Option,” that hospitals will be required to accept.

Threats against elected officials

Protecting leaders from threats and intimidation will be a common theme this year. Lawmakers intend to bring back a bill that died last year because they needed to do more research about protecting political speech.

At issue is creating a potential felony if one makes a credible threat against a state or local elected official or his or her property.

The controversial bill isn’t meant to be partisan, according to Mullica, but instead make sure leaders won’t be intimidated from doing their jobs.

Last year’s Republican sponsor, Soper, won’t be signing onto the bill this year, but Mullica still hopes for bipartisan support.

Lawmakers previously passed legislation to protect social workers from threats and are supporting new legislation this year that would protect public health employees.

However, the bill aimed at protecting lawmakers would add them to the protected class of judges, making offenses punishable by up to six years in prison or a fine as high as $500,000.

But wait, there’s more

Hundreds of bills get introduced each year, and the abrupt end to the 2020 session means there’s more than the ones detailed above. Look for the following bills (and more) to be revamped or similar to last year:

• making drug production costs transparent

• standardizing U Visa responses

• eliminating statute of limitations for civil lawsuits on sexual assaults

• modernizing child pornography laws

• reducing plastic use

• creating multilingual ballot access

Of course, lawmakers also intend to introduce bills they didn’t get to introduce last year because of the shortened session on things such as preventing U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using state databases for civil immigration enforcement and regulating metro districts.