Lawmakers and one of the backers of Colorado’s troubled new ethics law squared off Thursday, before a House panel endorsed legislation that would clarify its intent.
“I think you’ve got a lot of courage to come here and call it your law,” Rep. Kevin Lundberg, R-Berthoud, told Colorado Common Cause executive director Jenny Flanagan. “Please don’t curse the state of Colorado with another one of these.”
Flanagan, meanwhile, accused critics of perpetrating hysteria about the law’s effects. “A lot of the rhetoric around Amendment 41 misses the point.”
The House State Affairs Committee voted 6-4 to pass House Bill 1304, which makes clear the voter-approved amendment does not restrict scholarships to government employees’ children or cash awards to state university professors.
The committee also passed a companion resolution to ask for a Colorado Supreme Court ruling on whether it’s constitutional for the legislature to clarify the voter-approved amendment.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff acknowledged that asking the court for advice is a “politically difficult course to take,” but said: “In the interest of public policy, we’re obligated at least to try.”
If not, it could take years for lawsuits to clear the “cloud of uncertainty” over the ethics law, Romanoff said.
Amendment 41 prohibits lawmakers from taking anything from lobbyists and bans government workers and their families from receiving gifts worth more than $50, except on special occasions.
The law’s vague language also has been interpreted to prohibit certain scholarships, Nobel Prize money and donations to cover medical costs for government employees.
Flanagan said the legislation implements Amendment 41 “in a way that honors the voters’ desire for meaningful ethics reform.”
“It just makes clear that these unintended consequences, these myths, are not part of it,” she said.
One government employee at the hearing said her employers told her she would have to resign if she wanted to collect an inheritance upon her ill father’s death.
“Please help those of us who have been caught in the middle of the confusion,” Debra Gettings pleaded.
The bill’s author, Rep. Rosemary Marshall, D-Denver, said lawmakers “owe it to the citizens” to clarify their concerns.
But the committee’s Republicans, who voted against the legislation, said lawmakers have no right to tweak a constitutional amendment approved by voters.
“This is a horrible mess,” said Rep. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs. “I don’t see that we have the constitutionality to change it.”
The legislature can clarify a voter-approved amendment if the measure’s language is unclear or “absurdity is involved,” said attorney Mark Grueskin, who helped draft the clarifying legislation.
Marshall’s bill now goes to the full House. It’s expected to have a rough time in the Senate.
Another group of lawmakers, spearheaded by Senate President pro tem Peter Groff and Senate Republican leader Andy McElhany, has introduced a bill that implements Amendment 41 without addressing its vague language. Groff said a Senate committee is expected to consider the proposal next week.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
