By Marianne Goodland
Legislative reporter 

Sonnenberg reflects on final year in Senate

 


As he readies himself for the next phase of his career in public service, Senator Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, recently reflected on the policies and people who have been a part of that journey at the State Capitol. 

Ten of the 13 Senate bills Sonnenberg sponsored in 2022 made it through the General Assembly to the governor’s desk. So far, five have already been signed into law. The Governor has until June 11 to sign the rest. 

Sonnenberg said his most significant bill in 2022 is Senate Bill 53, which would allow someone who is hospitalized during a pandemic to have one family visitor of their choice. It’s to counter the isolation fort many who were hospitalized during the pandemic, whether they had COVID or not. Governor Jared Polis has not yet signed the bill, which initially struggled to get through the Senate but won final passage on the General Assembly’s final day.

Along with Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, Sonnenberg co-sponsored a bill to provide $60 million to retire wells in the Republican and Rio Grande river basins, in order to comply with contract compliance. Polis signed that bill on May 23. 

Another Sonnenberg win was to allow the University of Northern Colorado to set up its own osteopathic medical school, addressing a need for more doctors, particularly in northern Colorado. Senate Bill 56, co-sponsored with then-Senate President Leroy Garcia of Pueblo, was signed into law on March 17.

Finally, Sonnenberg teamed up with Sen. Kerry Donovan, D-Vail on Senate Bill 209, which would set up an assistance program at the Colorado Department of Agriculture to help small meat processors or those who want to set up small meat processing businesses obtain grants or loans from the US Department of Agriculture. The bill has not yet been signed by the Governor.

Over the years, Sonnenberg, despite being in the minority most of those years, has been effective as a voice for rural Colorado, whether on water issues, rural education, appointments by the Governor to boards and commissions or for conservative fiscal policies.

Perhaps his biggest win was in 2017, when he co-sponsors Senate Bill 17-267, known as Sustainability of Rural Colorado. The bill put the State’s hospital provider fee into an enterprise, a state-run business. Hospitals pay a fee on daily bed counts, which is then pooled and matched with federal dollars and redistributed to hospitals to cover Medicaid and uninsured patient costs.  

“When I fought for my local hospitals, as the legislature played games with their funding to avoid writing a TABOR check to the taxpayers, it was probably the hardest bill I have done but also rewarding. It was one of those that some of my conservative friends in the urban areas didn't like but one in which I tried to build a coalition of folks to support rural Colorado,” he told this reporter.

The 2022 visitation bill put him on the opposite side of the hospitals and ruined a long-term relationship with many, he said. “It was probably more frustrating than any bill I have ever run with the hospitals and medical field offering thoughts and amendments and with me adding them, they then walk away and still try to kill it.” He viewed every vote in favor as “God working in mysterious ways,” given that the bill was supposed to die at every turn, and then the votes it needed showed up from the most unlikely of places.

Water isn’t the most glamorous of topics, but he carried water bills virtually every year, often attempts to help protect agriculture from buy and dry, he said.

In the last few years, Sonnenberg has taken an interest in rural mental health. He pointed to Don Brown, the former commissioner of agriculture, who made that a priority and one in which Sonnenberg got active. “With both teen suicide and the stress in agriculture higher per capita in rural areas of the state, the loss of neighbors was heartbreaking,” he said.

In 2022, for example, that included Senate Bill 147, which he co-sponsored with Representative Rod Pelton, R-Cheyenne Wells. The bill created the Colorado pediatric psychiatry consultation and access program, which would support primary care providers in identifying and treating mild to moderate behavioral health conditions in children in primary care practices or school-based health centers and came with $11 million in funding. It was signed into law on May 17.

Sonnenberg also spoke about the lawmakers he worked with over the years from both sides of the aisle. 

Former Rep. Wes McKinley, D-Walsh, represented southeastern Colorado and was always a good man to work with, Sonnenberg said. During the 2011-12 sessions, Republicans held a slim one-seat majority in the House. Sonnenberg was chair of the House agriculture committee those years and while every committee had a one-Republican vote advantage, in ag, which was 7-6 Republican, it was more like 8-5 since McKinley sided with Republicans on oil and gas issues. 

As a member of the House minority for his first four years, Sonnenberg said he learned a lot from his minority leader Rep. Mike May of Parker. He “taught me so much. He was one of those guys who says, ‘look, I really need you. I'm not going to tell you how to vote, but I really need you to be a yes on this.’” When they disagreed, May acknowledged that Sonnenberg had to vote his district, because “if you don't vote your district, they will find somebody that will.”

He also cited Donovan, with whom he’s butted heads from time to time, as someone he’s worked well with, especially in the last four years after neither had anything to lose (Donovan is also term-limited in 2022). Rep. Dylan Roberts, D-Eagle, was also someone he liked working with, his co-sponsor on the conservation easement bills in the last few sessions. 

Sonnenberg also commented on his relationships with the three governors he’s served under, all Democrats: Govs. Bill Ritter, John Hickenlooper and Polis.

Of Ritter, Sonnenberg said he struggled to navigate through Ritter’s green energy agenda.

Hickenlooper was clearly his favorite and much of that is due to Hickenlooper’s first chief of staff, Alan Salazar, now the chief of staff to Denver Mayor Michael Hancock.

Salazar was the best chief of staff he ever dealt with, Sonnenberg said. One day, he got a call from Salazar, stating that Sonnenberg and Hickenlooper probably have a lot in common and let’s have a beer together. That took place on the patio of the House on a couple of lawn chairs, Sonnenberg recounted. They learned about each other’s history that day. After that, if Sonnenberg needed to talk to Hickenlooper, “boom, I was in his office.” They didn’t always agree, but their relationship was one where each listened. That led later to more Republicans in Hickenlooper’s cabinet, including Brown. Hickenlooper surrounded himself with people who could give him advice, and that made him a good governor, Sonnenberg said.

Unfortunately, the relationship changed when Salazar left and Pat Meyer became chief of staff, Sonnenberg explained. Part of that change in the relationship is reflected on the bill signing for SB 17-267; Sonnenberg said he asked for the bill to be signed in his district. Instead, Hickenlooper’s lobbyist, Kurt Morrison, arranged for the bill to be signed in Fowler, in southeastern Colorado. Sonnenberg indicated he and co-sponsor Rep. Jon Becker of Fort Morgan viewed that as a slap in the face.

Sonnenberg said he’s watched Hickenlooper since being elected to the U.S. Senate and while they still have a good relationship, seeing how the first-term senator has changed has impacted what Sonnenberg wanted to do after his time in the General Assembly. “If that’s what happens to a person who goes to D.C., I’m not sure I’d want to do it,” he said.

As to Polis, Sonnenberg had little good to say. “The governor has never been honest with me. I don't have a relationship with him because I can't trust him from my perspective. He has no integrity.”

That began when they had a conversation on full-day kindergarten, one of Polis’ early signature issues. Sonnenberg wanted to sponsor Polis’ bill, in part because the senator knew how hard it was for families to drive to town to pick up their kids after a half day of kindergarten, and for many, they wouldn’t do it because they couldn't afford full day or had the time to stop work and head to town. 

Sonnenberg said Polis initially agreed to Sonnenberg being on the bill, but his name was left off when it was introduced.

He had similar problems with Polis over income tax cuts, something the governor campaigned on and said he would support in his first State of the State address. Sonnenberg hoped for Polis’ support on his 2019 bill, but it died in its first committee hearing. 

Both of those instances led to a lack of trust, Sonnenberg said. The two haven’t had a substantial policy conversation since then, he added. 

 

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