Legislative Update/Recap

Yesterday the General Assembly adjourned for the rest of the year. Overall it was a good session for me. The legislature considered 649 bills and passed 447 of those! Not all of them have been signed by the Governor though, so I don’t know if all 447 will become law.

Major accomplishments included passage of a balanced budget and passage of an education reform bill. While I didn’t always agree with what the legislature did, I do know that the members on both sides of the aisle worked very hard to do what they believed was right for the state.

It is going to be hard to keep this summary brief because so much happened this year. For me personally, it was a mixed bag, but, it could have been worse!

I don’t think that effectiveness or success at the legislature can simply be measured by counting the bills you either pass or lose, I think that a legislator’s willingness to tackle difficult problems is also important. Because I was approaching the job as an unaffiliated member, I really didn’t know what to expect. Of the nine pieces of legislation that I ran, five passed.

The four measures that lost were:

Establishment of a Rainy Day Fund

Commercial Rafting Floating Rights

Waiver of Landowner Liability If Minors Trespass

Review of Health Care Insurance Mandate Costs

The five that passed were:

Shortened Unaffiliated Candidate Registration Requirement

Optional Establishment of Wildlife Crossing Zones

Status of Wells in Groundwater Districts

Continuation of River Outfitter Licensing Program

Support for Industrial Hemp as a Commercial Crop

Even though I was taken off the Appropriations Committee just before the budget debate, I was allowed to continue to sit on the Agriculture committee for the course of the session. And, to my great disappointment, my 40 amendments to the budget that would have reduced personnel costs and frozen hiring were all killed by the majority party. In retrospect though, I was able to represent my district regardless of the fact that I did not caucus with either party.

One side note – you, as taxpayers, pay for the majority and minority party legislative staff. I was not able to use the services of these staffers because I am not affiliated. On the positive side though – I was allowed to have an office and a desk on the floor !

I think what really stands out for me is the fact that the budget continues to be the most significant challenge facing the legislature. Education funding had to be cut significantly, and because the state is now carrying 70% of the load for funding K-12 education (local districts cover about 30% of the costs), the reduction in state revenues due to the economic downturn has had a major impact on K-12 funding.

And, to top that off, next year the federal funds are going to disappear, so the state is going to have to continue to cut funding for all state programs significantly. I ran amendments to try and cut state expenditures for personnel, and freeze hiring by not filing vacancies, but I was unsuccessful on that front. The legislature did however reduce state retirement benefit contributions by 2.5% which translates to a salary reduction across the board for the state employees. I think that next year the legislature will have to take similar steps at more aggressive levels.

Here is how I voted on some of the major bills this year:

Tuition flexibility – yes

Teacher tenure reform – yes

Payday lending reform – yes

Elimination of sales tax exemptions -no

Senior citizen homestead tax exemption removal – no

Reduction in state employee retirement benefits – yes

Commercial rafting rights – yes

Renewable energy incentives – yes

If you are interested in looking at the bills we worked on,the Colorado General Assembly website is a great starting point. If you need help navigating the website don’t hesitate to call the legislative staff in Denver, they are fantastic!

Thank you to everyone that contacted me during the session. And many thanks to my aide, Tiffany Neuendorf, a political science student at Western State College, for all of your help these last few months. I don’t know if people realize it, but the Colorado General Assembly is considered to be a citizen’s legislature. We serve for 120 days full time each year in Denver. Our annual salaries are set at $30,000 per year.

We are allowed part time staff during the session (20 hours per week), but are not provided with staff, travel costs, office expenses, or anything like that when we are not in session. So, during the interim we do our best to address constituent concerns and travel our districts.

In order to improve my service I will be posting a calendar on this website and on my facebook page that will include events I will be attending in the district, office hours, meetings, etc. I am glad that the session is over and am really looking forward to the opportunity to reconnect with folks in the district, but most of all I can’t wait to reconnect with my family at home!

Campaign

With regard to my campaign, I will be running hard to keep my seat, regardless of whether or not my name is on the ballot. It is my full intent to serve again in the state house but this time I will be running as an unaffiliated candidate. I am very grateful for the outpouring of support for my efforts to serve as an unaffiliated member of the General Assembly, and for this historic campaign.

I strongly believe that together we can make this happen. The only way we are going to get the two parties to refocus their energy on the needs of the citizens instead of themselves is to get non-partisan people elected to office. Once that happens, steps can be taken to re-orient legislative priorities toward the best interests of our state instead of the best interests of the parties themselves.

My goal is not to criticize either party. My concern is that our system is moving away from an emphasis on the needs of the people and towards an emphasis on the needs of the parties themselves. I don’t believe that is what our founders had envisioned for this nation and I believe we need to change the direction we are headed.

It is an honor to represent this district, and I will be working hard to serve you for two more years. Thanks again for your interest!

Sincerely,