It’s beginning to look more and more as though immigration will be a big issue in the 2006 Colorado General Assembly, which begins its annual skirmishes on Wednesday.
The biggest legislative issue, of course, will be money – especially this year, after voters gave the legislature $500 million more to spend. The only thing legislators absolutely must do every year is to pass a state budget. That, and decide how much money the state will give to local school districts, which is still a money issue.
But immigration? Immigration is a federal responsibility. States can’t do much about it – except pay for services to immigrants, legal and illegal, which is where the legislature’s conservatives think the legislature ought to put its foot down.
“It’s a question of economics,” says Rep. Joe Stengel, the leader of the House Republican minority. He argues that Colorado citizens pay at least $750 million in tax money every year to support illegal immigrants.
He also predicts that legislators who raise the immigration issue will be demonized. “You’re going to hear the word ‘demagogue’ a lot this next session,” Stengel said.
Yet some Democrats are having immigration bills drafted.
It’s a divisive issue. It has split the Republican Party especially, and Democrats see that rift as another reason to hope they can retain their legislative majority.
Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald thinks the Democrats’ chances of retaining control of both houses, especially the Senate, are “more than excellent.” The Democrats won their toughest races in 2004, she said, and in 2006 there will be five more term-limited Republicans than there are Democrats.
Money, the bigger issue, is also the bigger issue for Republicans. Gov. Bill Owens, otherwise revered as a solid conservative, is on the wrong side of both the money and immigration fights, in the minds of his party’s right wing.
Owens supported Referendum C, the five-year moratorium on TABOR tax refunds. And on immigration, he supports a program that would legitimize the use of temporary “guest workers.”
The governor disagrees with the Democrats on how the extra Referendum C money should be spent. Owens wants at least $80 million of the extra $500 million for transportation; the Democrats make education their top priority.
Money preoccupies the legislature. When it was in short supply, lawmakers finally overcame partisan differences last year to send Referendum C to the ballot, whereupon 52 percent of the voters said the plan was OK with them. But voters didn’t pass the companion measure, Referendum D, which contained spending plans to be paid for with bonds.
So the opportunities for haggling are boundless. The extra $500 million won’t last long; everyone wants a piece of it. Yet it’s still only about 3 percent of the total state budget. Just enough to raise expectations. Democrats are being importuned from all sides; conservative Republicans are fretful.
Stengel, who has turned out to be more of a hard-liner than moderates were expecting, says it’s not just the $500 million freed up by Referendum C. Another $1.5 billion may come from selling the state’s share of the big national tobacco lawsuit.
And much as $10 billion may be available over the next two years from the severance tax – on gas, oil and mineral extraction – that will increase markedly because of higher energy prices.
“It’s an astronomical amount of money,” Stengel says, “and it’s an election year.” A deadly combination, from his perspective. “My Democrat friends can’t keep their hands off it.”
Because it’s an election year, Democrats in the legislature will have to pay more attention to their clamoring constituencies, including labor, than they did last year, Stengel warns.
Senate President Fitz-Gerald concedes there’s already a lot of pressure for more spending, but she says that only makes it more important for Democrats to show they can “get the biggest bang for the buck.”
Voters have given the legislature “a lifeline and a vote of confidence” with Referendum C, she said. “We cannot fail.”
Fred Brown, retired Capitol Bureau chief for The Denver Post, is also a former national president of the Society of Professional Journalists.
