Colorado lawmakers have high hopes that the extraordinary coalition they formed to pass Referendum C will have a lasting influence during the upcoming legislative session.
Republicans joined Democrats and millionaire business executives lined up with labor-union workers to support the ballot measure that lets the state keep extra revenues estimated at $3.7 billion over the next five years. Voters approved Referendum C on Tuesday.
While the group won’t continue meeting on a regular basis, they said they have created a fragile foundation for future negotiations.
“We have a choice to make between now and then,” said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. “We can keep that spirit alive or we can return to business as usual.”
“Sometimes it’s relationships,” said Gov. Bill Owens. “You simply talk more when you know the person better. I’m not changing my view. They’re not changing their view, but the communications may be more open because we’ve had to communicate over the past six months.”
In an attempt to stave off continuing budget cuts that have totaled around $1 billion since 2001, Romanoff last year proposed indefinitely lifting the revenue limits imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights and cutting individual income taxes. Owens and his team pushed for a short deadline on how long TABOR’s limits would be suspended.
After a round of tense talks that included a negotiating session in the governor’s office – staged for the media – that Romanoff dismissed as “Kabuki theater,” Romanoff and the legislature’s Democratic majority reached a deal with the Republican Owens that created Referendums C and D.
Since then, Romanoff and Owens have dined together occasionally and developed cordial relations, said Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins.
Avoiding loggerheads
They were two of the hardest-working proponents of Referendums C and D, promoting the ballot measures all over the state. Voters rejected D, which would have allowed the state to borrow an additional $2.1 billion to jump-start road projects and pay off other bills.
Nobody suggests that the politicians will give up their party affiliations or attempts to appeal to their supporters, but the politicians promised to get along.
“I’m a conservative Republican, but I have worked with both parties,” Owens said. “And there may be some issues that don’t go to loggerheads because we’re able to talk better than we could last year.”
“On budget issues we would all be wise to be sensitive to what we told the voters,” said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County. “But we are from different parties and we have different constituencies.”
Such tension tends to lead politicians in different directions.
Katy Atkinson, a Republican consultant who served as the Referendum C spokeswoman, said issue campaigns tend to be more bipartisan than candidate races. But they also tend to be temporary, and the partners usually “drift away,” she said.
Republicans and Democrats are already drawing lines for battle during the upcoming session. Republicans are saying that they will fight creation of new programs. Meanwhile, Democrats are outlining plans to create programs they say will make government more efficient.
Close eye on spending
During a meeting with Senate Democrats on Saturday, Fitz- Gerald laid down rules for the next legislative session. There will be no tax credits offered to businesses or individuals for any purpose. And there will be no new programs that add cost to the government.
“This is not going to be a very flush year,” Fitz-Gerald said. “We’re simply going to be paying for operating expenses. We’ve got to be very frugal.”
That doesn’t mean new programs won’t be considered if they reduce costs for services that government already provides, she said. Bills that allow bulk-buying of pharmaceutical drugs or subsidize small businesses to provide health insurance for their workers will be considered because they could reduce the costs of health-care services provided by government.
Republicans who opposed Referendums C and D said they plan to keep a close eye on spending.
“Voters were told that the money will be used for the restoration of services that were cut since 2001,” said House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton. “The Republican agenda will be to restore rather than create new ones.”
Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, predicted a unified Republican opposition to the “loose spending and favors for public labor unions favored by the Democratic leadership.” Democrats deny having any such intentions for Referendum C money.
Staff writer Chris Frates contributed to this report.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
