Highlights from the Legislature on Monday.
— A proposal to help farmers hire temporary workers from Mexico (House Bill 1325) won initial approval from the House. Farmers facing worker shortages and fearful of immigration crackdowns are asking the state to help them negotiate the cumbersome application process for a federal guest worker program.
— The House unanimously approved and sent to the Senate a measure (House Bill 1344) that would require teachers convicted of child abuse or unlawful sexual behavior to agree never to teach again anywhere in the country.
— The Senate gave initial backing to asking health insurers to come up with no-frills plans for the uninsured (Senate Bill 217). Lawmakers would have to decide as early as next spring whether to accept any of the plans and whether to mandate that the uninsured buy the coverage with a possible state subsidy.
— The Senate voted 27-8 to ask voters to make it more difficult to propose constitutional amendments. Under the measure (Senate Concurrent Resolution 3), backers of constitutional changes would have to collect 50 percent more signatures than those just seeking a change to state statute. It now heads to the House.
New bills:
— Ask voters to eliminate the $5 bet limit at Colorado casinos to bring in millions of extra revenue for the state. The proposed constitutional amendment (Senate Concurrent Resolution 8) doesn’t specify what the new limit would be or what the extra money would be used for.
— Transfer $250,000 from a wildfire preparedness fund to a wildfire emergency response fund (Senate Bill 232).
— Ask voters to delete a section of the constitution concerning the importation of “spurious, poisonous or drugged spirituous liquors” (House Concurrent Resolution 1008).
— Ask voters to require state and local authorities to help enforce federal immigration laws (Senate Concurrent Resolution 9).
— Ask voters to repeal part of the state constitution that allows the planting of hedges, orchards and forests to be considered in assessing a property’s value (House Concurrent Resolution 1009).
