DENVER—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.
One bill would require auto insurance policies issued beginning in 2009 to include a minimum of $15,000 in emergency care coverage for all medically necessary services for three years following an accident.
Another bill would create a program to pay health care providers for trauma care provided in the first 72 hours after an auto accident if victims or their insurance companies don’t pay.
Boyd said rural communities have been overwhelmed by the cost of providing trauma care, and some areas of the state don’t have sufficient first responders.
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.
The council voted not to endorse one bill that would have provided incentives for purchasing new highway trucks that pull big trailers and would have eliminated emission testing for newer vehicles. Conservation groups expressed concerns about whether the bill would harm the environment.
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. Members of the interim committee said they needed more time to analyze the impact.
Democratic Sen. Gail Schwartz of Snowmass Village, chairwoman of the interim committee, said the bill will be introduced separately.
