Colorado lawmakers are expected to consider as many as 60 bills when they return in a special session on Thursday.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said Democrats will focus on three key issues: “holding employers accountable, enforcing a ban on services and beefing up the laws on human trafficking.”
The bills will “match virtually every item on the governor’s call.”
Last week, Gov. Bill Owens summoned the legislature back into session on short notice to deal with illegal immigration, forcing most lawmakers and legislative staff to cram months of work into a few days.
Owens also wants lawmakers to impose a strict deadline for the state Supreme Court to consider challenges to citizen-sponsored initiatives.
Lawmakers also are expected to raise the age for a common-law marriage. A recent court ruling found such marriages can exist for boys as young as 14 and girls as young as 12.
The deadline for asking staff to draft a bill was Friday, and many staffers planned to work through the Fourth of July holiday to complete the task of writing bills and assessing the financial impact to the state.
Romanoff said voters could still face a ballot question related to illegal immigration, but that would be because of legal requirements, not political grandstanding.
“The policy ought to drive that decision, not the politics,” Romanoff said.
One of the Democratic proposals calls for limiting employers’ tax deductions if they have illegal immigrants working for them.
That proposal – modeled after a Georgia law – would boost state revenues and, under the Taxpayers’ Bill of Rights provision in the Colorado Constitution, would require a vote of the people.
Rep. Alice Borodkin, D-Denver, plans to sponsor a bill addressing efforts to get tougher on human trafficking.
Borodkin said her bill would make it a felony for a person to threaten to report an illegal person’s status to government officials in order to extort money.
Rep. Bernie Buescher, D-Grand Junction, is expected to sponsor a bill that deals with identification requirements for voters, Romanoff said.
House Republicans plan to push for a broader measure to be considered by voters.
Rep. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, plans to carry a bill that would amend the state constitution to ban spending that benefits illegal immigrants.
Rep. Dale Hall, R-Greeley, has a bill that would ask voters to make the ban on funding part of state law. That’s a less strict standard that would allow future legislatures to change the list of services that would be banned.
Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, said the goal is to make sure that Colorado has tougher laws than the surrounding states.
“It’s like the two guys on the hiking trail when they come across a bear,” White said. “One of them stops to put on his tennis shoes and the other says, ‘That’s not going to help you outrun the bear,’ and he says, ‘I only have to outrun you.’
“All we gotta do is be tougher than the states around us,” he said.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
