General Assembly gets down to business Wednesday

The 2012 legislative session began as it always does, with promises of bipartisanship and historic achievements, with both sides saying they’ll reach across the aisle and hold hands.

There were other similarities — the mutual theme of the session will be jobs and the economy, leaders said in speeches, and they gave small previews of economic bills they say will help bring Colorado out of the financial dark ages.

Republicans spoke of cutting red tape and giving small businesses a leg up, and Democrats talked of helping Medicaid and education.

Lawmakers filed 131 bills on the first day, including controversial bills to create civil unions and allow concealed weapons to be carried on college campuses. Those are just the first of what will likely bring about many partisan battles, and they will begin on Tuesday, after Martin Luther King, Jr. holiday.

The El Paso County delegation, for the most part, responded with hope.

“Our caucuses our batting in the same direction,” said Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker. “Jobs are number one. And number two. And number three. Actually, they’re one through 10.”

Senate Majority Leader John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, said after the Senate convened that he appreciated a speech made by his Republican counterpart, Senate Minority Leader Bill Cadman, also of Colorado Springs. Cadman’s thesis was that the Legislature is built on personal relationships, and he choked up when he recalled the night he was with Democrat Cheri Jahn when she found out her son had been stabbed.

“This is all about personal relationships. I think that was his point, and it was well taken,” said Morse. “You cut one of us, and we all bleed.”

Still, he and others admitted that talk of bipartisanship doesn’t last.

Rep. Bob Gardner, R-Colorado Springs, said no one has any illusions, but no one is apathetic, either.

“I don’t think bipartisanship is ever completely present or completely absent,” he said.
And they’re all hoping they can find common ground on pet issues. Assistant House Majority Leader Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, wants to roll back environmental protection laws so the energy industry is free to drill more. Rep. Marsha Looper, R-Calhan, wants to require a state review of new Environmental Protection Agency regulations  before they’re implemented.

House Majority Leader Amy Stephens, R-Monument, is running a bill that would create “Colorado-specific solutions” to business issues, and reject many federal mandates that don’t fit the state. Morse wants to partially privatize the Department of Motor Vehicles, and, prior to issuing new licenses, require parents of 16-year-olds to sign a waiver affirming their child has been drug and alcohol free for at least a year.

Sen. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, introduced a bill Wednesday that would allow local governments to decrease their contributions to the Public Employees Retirement Association, while increasing the employees’ contributions.

And there will, of course, be more. The question is which bills will pass a Republican House and a Democratic Senate. Lambert used an old adage:

“The proof is in the pudding on that. So we’ll see.”

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Contact John Schroyer: 476-4825 

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