Harassment allegations get in way of transportation policy

Debate turns contentious: “not just any colleague”

The sexual harassment complaint against GOP state Sen. Randy Baumgardner has spilled into a contentious statehouse debate about legislation to fix Colorado’s roads, with Democrats pushing back on the measure over policy disagreements and the lawmaker’s role as one of the bill’s main sponsors.

The result has been two days of politically charged floor discussion on Senate Bill 1 with no signs of compromise. While Republicans have the votes to pass the measure and send it to the House, without any Democratic support, its future in the lower chamber looks dim.

“How do I work with a colleague from across the aisle who has this cloud hanging over him?” Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, DArvada, said in an interview. She is one of two Democrats on the Senate Transportation Committee, which first heard the bill, and has raised concerns about how the GOP would pay for and sustain it.

“He’s not just any colleague,” she added.

An outside investigator found that Baumgardner, R- Hot Sulphur Springs, “more likely than not” slapped and grabbed the buttocks of a legislative aide four times during the 2016 legislative session, prompting him to step down from chairing the transportation committee. He has nevertheless continued to deny the allegations leveled against him.

Baumgardner is one of the prime sponsors on Senate Bill 1, Republicans’ proposal to pay for a deep shortage in funds for state road repairs. It calls for earmarking about $ 300 million in existing tax dollars to create a transportation bond in the billions. But Senate Democrats have introduced a resolution to expel him and called every day since March 5 for Republicans — who control the Senate — to bring that resolution to the floor for debate.

The transportation bill, outside of the Baumgardner allegations, has been met with pushback from Democrats from the start, including Gov. John Hickenlooper, over concerns the GOP is trying to leverage too much in existing tax revenue. Democratic leaders want to put a tax hike before voters to generate new revenue for roads.

“Having talked to people all over the state … they feel that we do need new revenues,” Hickenlooper said this week. “I continue to try to figure out a way to find some compromise, some new revenues — money we can take from the general fund without putting us at risk for the next recession. Everyone acts like we’re not going to have a recession. We’re going to have a recession sometime in the probably not- so- distant future.”

When Republicans brought the measure to the Senate floor on Wednesday, Democrats launched into a mini- filbuster, with Sen. Irene Aguilar, D- Denver, even reading punctuation on amendments brought by the GOP. Sen. Tim Neville, R- Littleton, quipped that he hoped that building roads and bridges would be faster than the legislature’s process.

“There’s no way to separate a bill and its sponsor,” Sen. Kerry Donovan, D- Vail, told The Denver Post. “This is Senate Bill 1;

it’s one of the flagship bills of the session and it is addressing a critical issue that all of us have heard from our constituents. … To have a senator who’s been not only accused, but found that the accusations have been verified, to be the cosponsor on a flagship bill I think sends a conflicting message to current victims of sexual assault and people who are still in this building who are in the process of deciding whether they want to come forward or not.”

Republican leadership in the Senate pointed out that it is up to Baumgardner whether his name is on the bill and that he has been a prime sponsor of the legislation since before the session began — and before the investigation into the sexual assault complaint against him had been completed.

Senate President Kevin Grantham, R- Cañon City, said regardless of Democrats actions, “we’ll continue moving forward.”

“I spent four years in the minority. I know what it’s like,” he said. “They have certain tools at their disposal, and they’re making use of them. I won’t fault them for that. Reading amendments to the parenthesis — the intention is obvious. That’s their right by rule.”

The debate extended into Thursday before it was tabled until the start of next week, after which a new forecast for tax revenue is expected to be released.

Grantham said he is still in negotiations with the governor’s office about Senate Bill 1. The Senate Democrats’ pushback could signal an icy reception to the legislation once it makes it to the House, meaning the measure’s future is uncertain.