Colorado lawmakers late Monday wrapped up the 2006 legislative session, a contentious but productive four months that restored budget cuts, banned most indoor smoking and set the stage for a fiery election season.
The key successes of the session were paved by Colorado voters in November with the approval of Referendum C – a ballot measure that loosened the fiscal knot that was tying up the state budget.
At the same time, the majority Democrats continued to struggle in delivering new laws for key supporters, including labor unions, women’s-rights advocates and environmentalists.
Republican Gov. Bill Owens vetoed several key Democratic proposals. House Democrats took a last-minute stab at reversing three of those Monday night.
But Republican lawmakers stuck with their governor to prevent the necessary two-thirds majority, even on a whistle- blower protection bill the House had originally passed 60-5.
“A veto override is a whole different vote,” said House Republican Leader Mike May. “The power of the veto is what assists us in doing our job.”
And while the partisan wrangling that dominated this year’s session continued into the closing hours, there were a few final laughs, even a marriage proposal.
Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff announced that staffer Ben Goff popped the question on the House balcony earlier in the evening and his girlfriend, Melissa Greenlew, accepted.
“The question now before the House is to override Melissa’s decision,” Romanoff joked.
Much of the heavy lifting, such as passing the budget, had been done long before Monday. Budget writing went fairly smoothly, thanks to $800 million in extra revenues provided by Referendum C.
“At the beginning of the session, there was a lot of talk about whether they will keep faith with voters,” said Chuck Berry, president of the Colorado Association of Commerce and Industry. “As we got into the session, it became a nonissue.”
That’s because lawmakers didn’t spend a lot of time or money creating new programs. Instead, they focused on restoring the cuts that hurt programs that already exist.
Funding for state universities and colleges caught up with some of the past increases in student enrollment.
Families with disabled children were removed from waiting lists to get state aid.
Transportation officials got millions in extra money to begin patching up the state’s roads.
To tout the successes, Romanoff, D-Denver, summoned reporters to his office last week. On big notepads propped on easels, Romanoff checked off “Promises Made, Promises Kept.”
Improve Public Education – Check. Cut the Cost of Health Care – Check. Strengthen the Economy – Check. Protect the Public – Check. Ensure Accountability – Check.
Romanoff made so many check marks that his big red marker ran out of ink. He noted that many of the session’s successes were due to voter approval of Referendum C and to bipartisan efforts to solve problems.
On illegal immigration, Romanoff bragged that the 2006 session accomplished more than any other.
“We have passed more measures in a single session to tackle the problem of illegal immigration than in any legislative session ever,” Romanoff said.
Still, the session was not a success at every turn for the Democrats, who are concluding their first term in control of the legislature in more than 40 years.
Backers of emergency contraception watched Owens veto their bill for a second year in a row. Supporters of lifting time limits for lawsuits by victims of childhood sex abuse lost after the Catholic Church lobbied aggressively to defeat the bill.
Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, killed his bill to require employers to give workers time off to attend their children’s school events. He said he was dismayed by House Democrats who diluted the bill so much that it was a meaningless change to state law.
Labor unions lost bids to create a lower-cost prescription drug plan for the uninsured and to require large Colorado companies to fund health care for their employees.
Still, Steve Adams, the Colorado AFL-CIO president who groused last year about Democrats killing labor bills, said this session was far better.
“This session, I think, showed labor or working families that we’re going to get treated a whole lot better with Democrats in charge,” he said.
Adams had teamed up with drugmakers to push a plan to offer discount drugs to some uninsured, but lost House Bill 1100 when lobbyists for pharmacies, a health plan and a business group joined forces to kill it.
House Minority Leader May said the measure of his party’s success was its ability to kill bills that it believed would hurt business.
“If, by the end, the bills do no harm, we’d call that a success,” said May, who this year introduced the weekly “Golden Anvil” award to Democratic-sponsored bills that would impose additional costs on employers.
May assumed his party’s leadership post after an ethics investigation was launched into Rep. Joe Stengel’s practice of billing the state for full days of work when the Littleton Republican was in Hawaii on vacation and when he was taking the bar exam.
That fight was one example of the ethics sniping that consumed this year’s legislative session. Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood, resigned for demanding “reparations” from a Realtors’ group.
Even as lawmakers were drawing the session to a close, the tone remained bitter.
On Monday, when Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, was unsatisfied with Thornton Democratic Sen. Lois Tochtrop’s answer to a question about a bill, he asked again.
She ignored his request – she later said she had already answered – and the Senate proceeded to vote. As Mitchell returned to his desk, he called Tochtrop a “coward” as some fellow Republicans laughed.
As the night wound down, some House Republicans looked to make their mark on more than just public policy. Republican Rep. David Schultheis was caught, like a kid in a school yard, signing the drawer of his desk on the House floor.
“Someday, they’ll look back and say Schultheis sat here.”
Staff photographer Lyn Alweis contributed to this report.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
