Top lawmakers gave the green light Thursday for next year’s legislature to debate water, transportation, emergency health care in rural areas and about two dozen other issues.
The Legislative Council, made up of top lawmakers from both parties, chose 30 bills to send to the full legislature for debate after the 2008 session opens Jan. 9.
Individual lawmakers can introduce other bills, but legislation that gets the backing of the council doesn’t count against their five-bill limit.
The council signed off on two bills aimed at shoring up trauma care in rural areas after Sen. Betty Boyd, a Democrat from Lakewood, warned of a crisis.
“There are many areas of the state, quite frankly, where you don’t want to be involved in a serious automobile accident. Your chances of survival are fairly slim,” said Boyd, who chaired the legislature’s Health Care Task Force.
The council also cleared the way for bills dealing with police and firefighter pensions, mentally ill people in the justice system and developmentally disabled people.
An interim legislative committee on mineral revenues withdrew another bill that would change the way Colorado divvies up its share of federal royalties from oil, gas and other minerals.
