Colorado lawmakers will need to come up with at least $715,000 if they want to launch televised proceedings during the 2008 legislative session, according to a report released Wednesday.
The nonpartisan Colorado Legislative Council staff provided the detailed summary of the costs at a meeting of legislative leaders.
The basic cost includes buying video equipment, updating electrical lines and hiring four workers to run the system during the legislative session between January and May. The broadcasts would be available on cable television and the Internet.
“The question is whether you want to have a Hyundai or a Cadillac when you’re done,” said Kirk Mlinek, director of the legislative council.
The Cadillac plan, which calls for refurbishing the third-floor room where lawmakers hold news conferences, would boost the total cost to more than $1 million.
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said the total costs would be higher counting costs that have already been committed as donations.
Cable-TV provider Comcast has agreed to offer two channels at no cost, and the city and county of Denver will extend Comcast’s fiber-optic link to the Capitol. That link would otherwise cost $100,000, state officials said.
Romanoff said he hopes to raise a significant amount of the startup costs from private donations. The Colorado Broadcasters Association is considering the donation of video equipment, and four private foundations have expressed interest in providing funding.
Some lawmakers expressed concern that they would be caught speaking in unguarded moments and asked whether the cameras would focus on floor debates of conversations along the sides of the chambers.
When lawmakers continued to worry about off-the-record comments being picked up by the cameras, Romanoff said: “This is a statehouse, not a clubhouse. It seems to me we ought to be as transparent as possible.”
Lawmakers are expected to decide later this month on the plan.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
