Education
Lawmakers focused on philosophical, big-picture ideas about major education reform in 2008. They passed bills to measure students’ academic progress from year to year, make school accountability reports easier to interpret, regulate online education and expand preschool and full-day kindergarten.
Democrats shot down proposals to require proof of English competency or four years of math and three years of science to graduate. Instead, they passed a bill directing a study on statewide graduation requirements.
Lawmakers also passed a measure requiring schools to include information on contraception and sexually transmitted diseases in sex-ed courses.
The governor appointed a council to recommend education reform policy next year.
Environment
Environmental groups called the 2007 session the most pro-green in Colorado history.
Lawmakers passed bills aimed at protecting wildlife during the oil and gas boom and putting environmentalists and health experts on the oil and gas commission. They also passed measures dealing with the bark beetle outbreak and making it easier for counties to raise sales taxes to create open space.
Constitutional issues
The legislature set up a panel to hear alleged violations of the ethics-in-government law Amendment 41. The legislation attempts to clear up that the law’s ban on gifts applies only when there is a “breach of public trust for private gain.”
A proposal to ask voters to make it harder for citizens to change the constitution went the furthest in four years when it was passed by the House, but died in the Senate.
Budget
The $17.8 billion spending plan included the first fully funded pay raise for state workers since cuts during the economic downturn in 2001-2002.
Gov. Bill Ritter’s veto of spending instructions included in the budget prompted a constitutional showdown. On Friday, the Senate voted 34-0 and the House 61-2 to override Ritter’s vetoes – the first successful override vote since 1988.
Property taxes
The most significant change in tax policy was the approval of a freeze on property-tax rates for school districts. The move would prevent automatic decreases in tax rates caused by revenue limits imposed by the state constitution.
Districts are expected to collect an extra $47.4 million next year – and an ever-increasing amount in future years.
Republicans decried the measure as a tax hike and opponents are expected to file a lawsuit.
Renewable energy
Promoting alternative energy such as wind and solar power was a cornerstone of Gov. Ritter’s and Democratic leaders’ agendas.
Some 20 bills to promote new energy sources were passed, including one to require that investor-owned utilities produce 20 percent of their energy from renewable sources by 2010.
A second key proposal requires utilities to upgrade transmission lines to carry new energy sources while allowing them to recover the upgrade costs during construction.
Social issues
Lawmakers passed and expect gubernatorial approval of social issues that have been repeatedly killed or vetoed in the past.
The legislature passed bills to let gay couples adopt each other’s children, to prohibit employers from discriminating based on a worker’s sexual orientation and to require hospitals to inform rape victims about the availability of emergency contraception.
Health care
Although comprehensive reform is on hold until next year, lawmakers made some progress toward reducing the costs of health insurance and prescription drugs. Among the proposals passed are bills intended to provide cheaper generic drugs to uninsured Coloradans and reduce premiums for employees of small businesses.
