What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
What can we reason but from what we know? -Alexander Pope
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Two of the Governor’s three appointees to the state Parks and Wildlife Commission won Senate approval, but not without a fight. And the third — acknowledged as the author of the state’s wolf restoration ballot measure — withdrew his nomination, but not without complaining to the commission about how he was treated in the confirmation process. The Senate confirmed John “Jack” Murphy of Denver to represent outdoor recreation and parks on a 23-11 vote on March 12. But the nomination of Jessica Beaulieu was much closer, a 19-15 vote, and opponen...
By Marianne Goodland Legislative reporter Two bills designed to put oversight into the funeral home industry won unanimous committee approvals in the past week. House Bill 1335, which won approval from the House Business Affairs & Labor Committee, is what’s known as a sunset bill. It’s designed to continue state law over an industry or occupation. The measure would extend regulation of the funeral home industry — the business side — up to 2031. But it also adds new law about inspections of funeral homes, to hopefully prevent what’s happened...
Two of Governor Jared Polis’ three appointees to the State Parks and Wildlife Commission got a thumbs-down from the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Feb. 29. The committee, with chair Senator Dylan Roberts, D-Summit County, voting with its three Republicans, are sending an unfavorable recommendation on Gary Skiba and Jessica Beaulieu. The committee did approve the recommendation for John “Jack” Murphy. Skiba was appointed to represent sportspersons — hunters and anglers — on the commission. Murphy and Beaulieu were appo...
Senator Byron Pelton’s bill to enhance the criminal penalties for human trafficking won a 4-1 vote last week from the state Senate Judiciary Committee and now heads to the full Senate for debate. The measure, Senate Bill 35, makes human trafficking for involuntary servitude and human trafficking for sexual servitude crimes of violence, subject to enhanced sentencing guidelines and increases the statute of limitations for prosecution of these offenses. This would make servitude a crime of violence and extend the statute of limitations from f...
Democratic lawmakers at the State Capitol have started their efforts to allow local governments to regulate pesticides, despite testimony from farmers and their allies that pests and weeds don’t respect county boundaries. House Bill 1178, sponsored by Representatives Cathy Kipp, Fort Collins, and Meg Froelich, Greenwood Village, would allow local governments to regulate which pesticides could be used within their borders. The bill has been years in the making, but Republicans and rural Democrats have managed to keep state control of p...
By Marianne Goodland Legislative reporter The State Senate this week took on the issue of behavioral health in rural Colorado, with two measures designed to help farmers and ranchers with mental health programs and providers. Senator Perry Will, R-New Castle, called the need for behavioral health a pervasive issue in the agricultural industry and in rural communities. That need is compounded by a lack of adequate behavioral health providers and programs, Will said. Farmers and ranchers have a suicide rate three and a half times that seen in...
Farmers who want to sell raw milk directly to consumers are one step closer to being able to do it legally. A bill co-sponsored by Senators Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, and Dylan Roberts, D-Frisco, recently won a unanimous vote from the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Senate Bill 43 “is about freedom and choice” for consumers to pick the foods and beverages they want to consume and to help promote local agriculture producers, Roberts told the committee on Jan. 18. Many other states already allow for direct sales of raw mil...
Lawmakers had strong criticism for the staff of Colorado Parks and Wildlife over their handling of the release of the first five wolves under the Front Range voter-approved wolf restoration plan. The comments about how the release was mishandled came during a joint agency oversight hearing on Jan. 23 with the House and Senate agriculture and natural resources committees. Comments came from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle, who faulted the agency for failing to notify local ranchers, landowners, elected officials or anyone that wolves were b...
This week marks the beginning of bills hearings at the Colorado legislature and among the bills lawmakers will consider is one dealing with “de-Brucing.” Currently, 51 out of 64 counties, including the counties in northeastern Colorado, have obtained permission from voters to retain tax revenue paid to the counties when it exceeds revenue limits imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR). Those permissions for the northeastern counties was granted by voters between 1994 and 2004, with Phillips County the first among those counties to ob...
Lawmakers have returned to the State Capitol for the 2024 legislative session. The first two days were full of pomp and circumstance and drama. Legislative leaders led off day one with remarks on how they’d like to see the 2024 session progress and all struck a very similar tone on civility. The end of the 2023 session, as well as the special session in November on property taxes, both produced behavior that has troubled lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Two House Democrats resigned in December, both citing the toxic environment in the H...
The 2024 General Assembly session began on Wednesday, Jan. 10, with an election looming just 10 months away that could determine whether Republicans gain lost ground in the House or keep Democrats from a super majority in the Senate. The two Republican lawmakers who represent northeastern Colorado have their first bills ready to go and their priorities set for the next 120 days. Senator Byron Pelton, Sterling is entering his second session as a state senator. He intends to run legislation on sex trafficking, a bill he has been working on with...
Just days after voters delivered a stinging defeat of Proposition HH, a Democratic-backed proposal from the General Assembly and Governor Jared Polis, the governor called lawmakers back to the State Capitol to come up with property tax relief that wouldn’t touch TABOR refunds. That didn’t mean that TABOR refunds weren’t there for the grabbing for other things. The General Assembly convened for four days, beginning last Friday, to review 14 bills on property tax relief and a laundry list of other issues the governor included in his special sessi...
First-year State Senator Byron Pelton of Sterling had big shoes to fill when he was sworn into office last January. Succeeding 16-year lawmaker Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, now a Logan County commissioner, Pelton was immediately part of a coalition of new senators on both sides of the aisle who were expected to stand strong for rural Coloradans and the agriculture industry. In addition to Byron Pelton, that included his cousin, Republican Sen. Rod Pelton of Cheyenne Wells, who until the 2021 redrawing of senate boundaries represented northeastern...
The Colorado General Assembly wrapped up its 2023 work on Monday, May 8, after 120 days of what’s been called one of the most contentious sessions in recent memory. The last day was capped by a walk-out by House Republicans over the rush by Democratic lawmakers to pass two bills introduced in the session’s final days and tied to escalating property tax hikes. Senate Bill 303 would take a portion of TABOR refunds for the next 10 years to pay for property tax relief. The bill creates a ballot measure in November, Proposition HH, that would ask...
The School Finance Act is headed to the Governor, although not without some last-minute protests from progressive Democrats who argued against the money set aside in the measure for schools that shelled out thousands of dollars to replace mascot symbols. Senate Bill 287 provides $266 million to cover the State’s share of expenses for the 178 school districts. That raises the per-pupil funding by eight percent, to $8,076.41. Rural and small rural districts also get a $30 million boost, with 55 percent going to rural districts and 45 percent t...
The Colorado General Assembly is in its final days of the 2023 session, with adjournment to take place no later than midnight, Monday, May 8. Lawmakers have at least 200 bills to complete in the final week, including the Governor’s housing plan as contained in Senate Bill 213. The bill was gutted last week to remove most, but not all, of its language that stripped local governments’ control on zoning and other housing issues and ceding it to the State. As it exists this week, the measure now has to head over to the House, where progressive Dem...
The school finance act, the legislative measure that funds public schools, is well on its way to passage through the General Assembly in the waning weeks of the session. Senate Bill 287 funds each student at $8,076.41, an eight percent increase over 2022-23 levels. It’s just shy of $1,000 more per student, according to Senator Rachel Zenzinger, D-Arvada, the bill’s sponsor. The bill also begins a two-year process for finally paying off the debt to K-12 education, known as the budget stabilization factor. Using money from the State edu...
The back and forth in the General Assembly over whether to send $356,701 to the Yuma school district to pay for mascot replacement is back to “no,” after lawmakers gave their final approval to the 2023-24 budget. Senate Bill 214 is the budget bill that funds state government to the tune of $38.5 billion. It puts an extra $900 per pupil into K-12 education, adds $822 million to the Department of Health Care Policy and Financing to help with the transition in Medicaid when the federal designation of a public health emergency ends and gives Sta...
State House lawmakers wrapped up their work on the 2023-24 State budget as contained in Senate Bill 214, with Republicans winning some key concessions that added amendments to the budget. Among the amendments added: $354,701 to pay for the costs of replacing the Indian mascots at the Yuma School District. Most significantly, Representative Barbara McLachlan, D-Durango, agreed to carry the amendment, along with Rep. Richard Holtorf, R-Akron. McLachlan was one of the House sponsors on Senate Bill 21-116, the measure that mandated the mascot...
The 2023-24 State budget is now in front of lawmakers at the State Capitol. During the past week, the Senate worked on the $38.5 billion budget, adding $85.5 million in additional spending that included $354,000 in funding for the Yuma school district, intended to help the district pay for the costs of replacing its former Indian mascot. That amendment came from Senator Byron Pelton, R-Sterling. Majority Democrats in the General Assembly passed a law in 2021 requiring all public schools with Indian mascots to replace them, except for two that...
The Colorado State House spent the weekend working on a trio of gun bills, with approval largely along party-lines, although there were a few Democratic defections along the way. Majority Democrats also invoked a rarely used rule to limit debate, after two solid days of Republican filibusters on the bills. The first bill, Senate Bill 168, would allow victims of gun violence to sue firearms manufacturers and dealers for damages in civil court, under a claim of wrongful conduct. It would overturn a 2000 law that supporters of the bill claim is...
A bill to ban the slaughter of horses for human consumption, which hasn't been available in the United States since 2007, fell by the wayside in the State Senate this week when the bill's Democratic sponsor reneged on an agreement with Democrats on the Senate Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee. Senator Sonya Jaquez Lewis, of Longmont, agreed to an amendment on Senate Bill 38 when it was in committee, to rewrite the bill to change it from a ban on horse slaughter to put more...
Senators Byron Pelton, R-Sterling, and Kyle Mullica, D-Thornton, won approval from a Senate committee last week for a measure that will impose higher penalties for those who deal in Schedule I or II drugs that result in death. The bill mirrors the penalties included in last year’s fentanyl bill to include heroin, LSD, marijuana, meth, Ecstasy, Quaaludes, peyote, Vicodin, cocaine, methadone, Dilaudid, Demerol, OxyContin, Adderall and Ritalin. Senate Bill 109 passed on a 3-2 bipartisan vote, with Sen. Dylan Roberts, D-Eagle, an assistant d...
Rumors of a bill banning so-called “assault weapons” have been circulating at the State Capitol (and outside of it) since before the 2023 session started. Up until a week ago, Democrats were downplaying the chances that the bill would be introduced. All that flew out the window on March 3, when one of the House’s most progressive Democrats introduced House Bill 1230, although the bill’s expected sponsor has now dropped off the measure. Its legislative declaration, which says why the bill is needed, says assault weapons and high-ca...
Democrats at the State Capitol have rolled out a package of four bills they claim will reduce gun violence. But a bill that has already seen several drafts, on banning so-called assault weapons, wasn’t among them and it may not surface in the 2023 session. The four bills introduced in the past week: Senate Bill 370, sponsored by Senator Tom Sullivan, a Centennial Democrat. Sullivan was the sponsor in 2019 of the extreme risk protective order law, and the 2023 version is intended to allow more individuals to file for those orders. The s...
