Union seeks to nix RTD outsourcing minimum
The transit workers union, which represents about 1,800 RTD employees, is promoting a bill that would remove the requirement that at least 50 percent of the agency’s bus service be operated by private contractors.
Amalgamated Transit Union Local 1001 said it expected Sen. Bob Hagedorn, D-Aurora, and Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder, to sponsor the bill, which gives the Regional Transportation District the option of contracting out up to 55 percent of the agency’s bus service but removes any mandated minimum percentage of the service that must be privatized.
Over the years, the Colorado General Assembly has steadily increased the percentage of RTD bus service that must be privatized. Supporters of privatization say it fosters competition and should save RTD money.
Yet lower wages offered by the private bus companies have caused high turnover and driver shortages at times. Some commuters have complained in the past about inferior service offered by the private companies.
House, Senate honor slain Colorado troops
A lone bugler played taps from the balconies in the Senate and House on Monday after a tribute to fallen soldiers from Colorado.
The names of the 48 soldiers with Colorado ties who have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan in the last year were read aloud.
“The cost of war will be worn forever by the families of those who have fallen,” said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, who carried the resolution honoring the slain soldiers in the Senate.
House sponsor Stella Garza Hicks, R-Colorado Springs, said: “We will always hold a special place of honor for the soldiers and families who have made the ultimate sacrifice serving our country.”
Several family members of soldiers killed in action lined the sides of the chambers during the tributes.
Proposed building tax would boost higher ed
A proposed initiative for the November ballot calls for a tax on new construction to fund higher education in Colorado. The proposal is to impose a one-half of 1 percent “higher-education funding fee” on all construction projects. Construction projects exempt from the tax would include public buildings, farms, places of worship and senior housing.
Sex-education bill heads to Ritter’s desk
Teaching abstinence-only sex education courses would be barred in all but one school district under a measure on its way to the governor.
House Bill 1292 requires that schools teach courses based on scientific research and include instruction on the health benefits and possible side effects of contraception.
The district in the San Luis Valley town of Center would be able to continue its abstinence-only course so it won’t lose a federal grant.
Business group endorses property-tax freeze
The Colorado Forum, a statewide group of 65 chief executives and other professionals, on Monday endorsed Gov. Ritter’s plan to freeze property-tax rates for schools.
Supporters say the plan would allow districts to collect more money for schools. That extra money – totalling about $64 million next year – would relieve the state from its duty to cover some unmet costs in school districts across the state.
Former officials back oil-and-gas panel reform
More than 20 former public officials called on the Senate to reform the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.
The group, which includes former Colorado Division of Wildlife directors Perry Olson, John Mumma and Jim Ruch, asked senators in a letter to support House Bill 1341.
The bill calls for cutting from five to three the number of members who must have a background in the oil and gas industry, and increasing the membership of the commission from seven people to nine. Landowners, environmentalists and public-health officials would be added to the board.
