The House struck a compromise Tuesday to clarify Colorado’s new ethics law, drawing in Republicans with a plan to have voters approve a narrowed interpretation of the ban on gifts to public officials.
The legislation would clear up the broad consequences of Amendment 41 – including a prohibition on scholarships for the children of public employees and personal gifts to police officers – then send the ethics measure back for a public vote in November 2008.
“Are we going to pursue to the bitter end the absurd results?” said Rep. Rob Witwer, urging fellow Republicans to support the bill and calm public hysteria over the law’s scope. “People are looking to us to find a solution, and this is a solution that gives the voters the final say.”
It was unclear, though, whether the House compromise would survive in the Senate. Democrats control both chambers.
Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and Senate President pro tem Peter Groff have from the start of the session opposed House attempts to tinker with the voter-passed constitutional amendment.
“I feel more comfortable with something the voters confirm, but I’m not sure it answers all my questions,” Fitz-Gerald said Tuesday.
She and Groff were irked at their House counterparts for not telling them of the plan beforehand. “Maybe someone should tell them they don’t work in the Nebraska Legislature,” which has only one chamber, Groff said.
“One step at a time”
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff said he talked to Fitz-Gerald about the compromise Tuesday morning but that his first priority was getting it through the House.
“We’re trying to take this one step at a time,” he said.
House Republican leadership had opposed House Bill 1304 until Romanoff and Majority Leader Alice Madden offered up the plan for another election. Then Minority Leader Mike May threw his support behind the bill.
“I can’t think of a more responsible way to deal with the voters than this,” said May, who called the ethics law “one of the most poorly written documents to ever be forced on this state.”
Otherwise, he told fellow Republicans, “go ahead and drive your car off the cliff and take the voters with you.”
Still, several Republicans voted against the measure, which needs a final vote in the House before heading to the Senate.
It doesn’t matter what the amendment’s drafters meant or whether voters misunderstood its breadth, said Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs. Lawmakers took an oath to uphold the constitution and they cannot carve out the parts of the amendment that are publicly unpopular, he said.
Court permission sought
The bill has a companion resolution to ask the Colorado Supreme Court whether the legislature has the authority to clarify the amendment. If the court agrees, voters could weigh in on the amendment’s new language in 2008.
Colorado Common Cause executive director Jenny Flanagan, a proponent of the ethics law, said she was “pleased to see bipartisan support to move our ethics law forward.”
“Voters have already said they support ethics,” she said. “If pushed, they will again.”
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.
Its broad language has been interpreted by some to prohibit scholarships, inheritances, personal gifts and collections for medical bills for anyone employed by the government.
Staff writer Jennifer Brown can be reached at 303-954-1593 or jenbrown@denverpost.com.
