The curtain rises on the 2006 legislature this week.
As in other election years, we wonder whether lawmakers will be able to stay focused on their mission to craft and pass laws beneficial to Colorado. Needless to say, we’re hoping for a productive session with politicking kept to a dull roar.
Many of the key issues will involve the $6.3 billion general-fund budget.
Rather than cutting programs, as lawmakers have done since the 2001 recession, legislators must set priorities for the infusion of $440 million in voter-approved Referendum C money for the current fiscal year and $505 million in the year that starts July 1. Many lawmakers hope to restore spending levels for a broad array of programs and services. The governor wants most of the current year’s money to go for highway and other transportation needs.
Democrats will move aggressively on a host of issues, including education and health care. House Speaker Andrew Romanoff supports a creative, and controversial, attempt to reduce the state’s abysmal high school dropout rate and prepare more students for college.
The plan, supported by some members of the State Board of Education, would give principals authority to hold a fifth year of high school that includes college courses. Fifth-year students would get college credits and emerge with a diploma and associate’s degree. Proposed legislation would grant the authority and the money, which would be deducted from funding now earmarked for other student programs.
In 2004, voters ousted Republicans from legislative control and gave Democrats the responsibility of setting the statehouse agenda. Last year party leaders charted a centrist course, and we hope they will do so again. The state benefits when the political parties cooperate, and we’ve seen often over the years that the art of compromise often improves the final legislation.
Over the 120-day session, we hope the legislature will expand the program that covers Colorado’s growing uninsured population. It’s essential to streamline Medicaid costs without jeopardizing safety-net payments for the needy.
We’d like to see the parties cooperate on a bill to lower prescription drug costs by bringing Colorado into a multi-state purchasing pool. Lobbyists for the pharmaceutical industry will be out in force, trying to defeat the measure. Last year, Gov. Bill Owens vetoed two bills designed to lower drug costs. This year, authors are revising the bill to take his objections into account – while also considering an approach that goes directly to the voters if necessary.
Republicans want to resolve a number of hot issues – the budget of course, as well as immigration policy, the rights of surface versus mineral owners, revisions to the state’s new auto insurance law and an overhaul of the state’s pension plan.
Lawmakers appear to be moving toward a consensus on a statewide indoor smoking ban, after nearly passing legislation last year. We hope their efforts bear fruit.
Spicing up the political dynamics is the fact that Owens will be serving his final year before term limits force him from office. He’ll work to re-establish conservative credentials that were challenged by the out-of-state anti-tax hawks who led the campaign against Referendum C. Last year Owens led a bipartisan effort to craft the landmark fiscal reform measure approved by voters.
Owens recently has made a point of reminding Democrats that he vetoed 47 bills last year and won’t hesitate to pick up the pen in 2006. But Romanoff and Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald remain optimistic that Owens and the legislature will work together on most critical pieces of legislation, including an effort to crack down on identity thieves. Democratic leaders promise to enforce fiscal discipline – Romanoff said that of more than 50 bills already prepared for introduction, at least 10 seek funding that might not be available. “Some folks are eager to spend money that we just got. But those people might be in for a rude awakening,” he said.
With the session opening Wednesday, we welcome Colorado’s 100 legislators back to the Capitol and look forward to a session where the lawmaking transcends politics and applies this simple standard: “What’s good for Colorado?”
