Tenant’s rights bill headed to governor
Legislation that would guarantee tenants basic rights in dealing with landlords cleared the Senate on Tuesday and is headed to the governor.
Supporters had tried to pass a tenants’ rights bill 19 times before over the past few decades.
Ritter has not taken a public position on the bill. House Bill 1356 requires landlords to provide basics such as heat and running water and allows tenants to withhold rent and go to court if landlords refuse to fix serious problems.
Landlords would be barred from retaliating against tenants by raising their rent or cutting off services.
Bills on health insurers, civil rights also cleared.
Lawmakers Tuesday also sent to Ritter other legislation on which he has not taken a position.
The first would require health insurance companies to get approval from the Department of Insurance before they could raise premiums on policyholders.
Another bill would extend civil rights protections to gays and lesbians when they rent an apartment or go to hotels, restaurants, stores and many other places of business.
School measures eliminate some CSAPs, expand preschool for at-risk kids.
Lawmakers also passed:
• A bill aligning the state’s school curriculum standards more with college admission requirements and getting rid of the CSAP test in high school in favor of tests connected to the ACT college admission exam.
• A school funding bill that will allow 25,000 more at-risk kids to go to preschool and full-day kindergarten.
