Colorado lawmakers are heading into the homestretch of the 2008 legislative session with several major issues left unsettled before they must adjourn Wednesday.
Legislative leaders said Friday that they hoped to finish by Tuesday.
The outlook is unclear for a measure that would ask voters to amend the state constitution to make it easier for residents to change the law, but harder to change the constitution.
The House is expected to take up that proposal again today.
Lawmakers also aren’t done with a bill that would streamline how the state distributes its growing revenue from mineral leases on federal land and use some of the money to create a fund for construction projects on college campuses.
And legislators haven’t sorted out a contentious school-finance bill.
After the House killed a separate bill providing for teacher-salary incentives, the Senate attached it to the school-finance bill. Also still in flux is whether lawmakers will use the bill to continue some Amendment 23 school-funding increases beyond the 2011 expiration date.
“We probably outdid ourselves in previous years by finishing early three years in a row,” said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, adding that most of the big debates had already occurred in the House.
Mainly, the work that’s left for the House is hammering out details on bills with the Senate, he said.
Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon, D-Denver, said the pace of the session seemed fairly normal compared with previous years.
“The harder issues always end up being debated on the last day of the session — because they’re hard,” Gordon said. “The easy things get done earlier.”
On this year’s list of dead-but-not-forgotten bills are two measures that would have charged tolls on Interstate 70 west of Denver to raise money for easing congestion on the highway. They both saw fierce opposition from mountain communities and ultimately died. Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, the sponsor of one bill, said he planned to bring another such proposal back next year.
Also on that list is a bill that would have required the use of a primarily paper-ballot voting system for this year’s elections. Most of the state’s county clerks opposed the bill, and lawmakers ultimately abandoned the plan.
Lawmakers still are considering a bill that sets the stage for the state to require all Coloradans to have health insurance by 2010, a system that ultimately would require heavy state subsidies to insurers.
Meanwhile, a host of other bills imposing new regulations on insurance companies, changing school testing standards and establishing new requirements on how DNA evidence is handled await final action.
Other key issues still pending:
• Legislation expanding civil rights protections for gays and lesbians to housing, public accommodation and other areas.
• A bill giving apartment renters more rights.
• Legislation to require health insurers to get state approval before increasing premium rates.
• A measure meant to make it easier for Colorado farmers to import Mexican workers.
• A bill that would make it easier for new taxi companies to start up in Denver.
• Legislation regulating morticians in Colorado.
Tim Hoover: 303-954-1626 or thoover@denverpost.com
