DENVER-
Two bills that former Gov. Bill Owens had vetoed made it into law Friday, one requiring health-care contracts with doctors to be written in plain language and another allowing local communities to raise sales taxes to buy open space.
At a signing ceremony, Gov. Bill Ritter said supporters of the measures had worked for years on compromises, and it finally paid off.
“It was everyone’s hope we could get to a place and find some middle ground,” said Ritter, a Democrat who took office in January.
Ritter later signed a bill that renews a campaign to encourage organ donations and renames it after 16-year-old Emily Keyes, who was killed by a gunman last fall at Platte Canyon High School. She decided to become an organ donor four months before the shooting, and her corneas later helped a man regain his sight.
Emily’s mother, Ellen, thanked Ritter for his support. She said her daughter would continue to help others by increasing donor awareness.
Owens, a Republican who served the maximum two terms, had vetoed the open-space bill, saying that higher taxes were not the best way to fund the expansion.
He and other Republicans had objected to provisions in the doctor contract bill that would have barred physicians from discriminating against gays. That wording was left out of the bill Ritter signed Friday.
Fort Collins Republican Sen. Steve Johnson, who sponsored the contract-language bill, said doctors spend too much time trying to figure out contracts, taking away time from patient care.
“Frankly, I want people in doctors’ offices worried about my health when I’m sick, not working with insurance companies and fighting with insurance companies,” he said.
Doug Robotham, spokesman for the Trust for Public Land, said he worked on the sales tax increase for four years.
“This is certainly a valuable shot in the arm,” he said.
Rep. Al White, a Republican from Winter Park, sponsor of the open-space bill, said the proposal had been vetoed twice, even though it had wide support in the Legislature.
Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Golden, said communities have lost opportunities to buy land as lawmakers fought to get it signed into law.
“It’s time, and maybe it’s past time,” she said.
