Ten Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman…The Legislature gaveled down the session two days early, wrapping things up ahead of schedule for the first time since the 120-day calendar was adopted in 1989, saving taxpayers some $30,000. But not before passing the Colorado Economic Recovery Act with barely bipartisan support. Dubbed the most significant bill to emerge from the session, the law was sending a pair of measures — Referendum C and Referendum D — to voters in November asking whether the state could keep an estimated $3.1 billion in TABOR-allotted refunds over the next five years to pay for education, health care and transportation. “This has certainly been the most successful session of my five years here,” said House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver. “Of course, I’m a little biased,” he added, standing in front of a “Pledge to Colorado” banner declaring that Democrats had won victories for health care and education. Republicans begged to differ. “This has been the most anti-business General Assembly since Kennedy took office,” shot back House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton. Gov. Bill Owens, a backer of the TABOR time-out referenda, was ready to urge voters opt for a “rational middle ground.” The Republican said, “I’m going to ask Coloradans not to jump to conclusions. I think if people don’t lock into one side or the other, we can have a real good civic debate about the future of Colorado.” Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, thought otherwise and dismissed warnings about the dire budget cuts that would result from a defeat of the measures at the polls. “There is no collective will in this body to make any cuts whatsoever, and never has been since I’ve been here,” he said. “The people can spend the money a lot better than the government can.” Romanoff acknowledged it wouldn’t be an easy sell but promised to work day and night to persuade voters to take the plunge. “It’s going to take all hands on deck,” Romanoff said. “The slogan ‘Vote no it’s your dough’ is catchy; ‘Vote yes to fix the mess’ is tougher to pass.” …

… With four decades’ worth of witticisms and barbs stored up — it had been that long since they’d been in the minority — House Republicans had plenty to unload on Democrats in the annual Hummers, the traditional vaudeville-like skewering of the majority by the downtrodden party. As the theme music from Star Trek played, Rep. Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, mocked House Speaker Andrew Romanoff as a “gavel-happy, William Shatner type of leader,” blending Capt. Kirk’s stilted delivery with the egocentrism of Boston Legal’s Denny Crane. “Some said that this day would not happen until you-know-what froze over,” said Cadman-as-Romanoff, pointing to the early adjournment. “Well, ladies and gentlemen, as you will recall, the day I assumed this gavel it was cold outside and the frost-line was receding faster than my hairline.” The skitsters then mounted a mock version of The Dating Game, with House Minority Leader Joe Stengel, R-Littleton, dressed as Zorro (a nod to the name of Romanoff’s dog) grilling three “bachelorettes,” Republican Reps. Richard Decker, Larry Liston and Mike May, bewigged and bewitching in their portrayals of Democratic Reps. Dorothy Butcher, Morgan Carroll and Buffie McFayden, respectively. “The GOP imitators were as dainty as elephants,” the Statesman scribe observed. Introducing “Carroll,” Dating Game announcer Rep. Matt Knoedler, R-Lakewood, described her as a “lovely lady” who “enjoys writing legal briefs on a cold, rainy day while sipping coffee poured by a barista who’s recovering from a workman’s comp injury.” After all the fuss, however, Romanoff stuck with his pooch.

Fifty Years Ago this week in The Colorado Statesman … Democrats in the Legislature “stuck to their guns” and wrestled a concession from the backers of Republican Gov. John Love’s sales tax proposal. Arguing that Love’s plan to extend his sales tax increase to food purchases would burden lower-income residents, Democrats secured an income tax rebate of $7 for every hungry mouth in a taxpayer’s household. The deadlock over taxes and spending drove the legislative session to one of the latest adjournments in state history, when two conference committee reports garnered sufficient votes to pass on Saturday, May 1. Under the compromise budget, state sales tax would rise from 2 percent to 3 percent, with drugs and prosthetic devices exempt. Taxes on cigarettes were also going up, from 3 cents to 5 cents per pack, with a portion of the increase going to fund the state’s Average Daily Attendance aid package to school districts. The Legislative Council was authorized to conduct a study on how state government was organized and another on state support for public schools. In the closing days of the session, the General Assembly also passed what The Statesman termed a “watered-down compromise” anti-billboard law, and the Senate accepted House amendments to an overhaul of the state’s criminal insanity laws, placing the burden of proof for insanity pleas on prosecutors rather than on defendants. As legislators “emptied their desks and packed up their pencils,” most called the session a success, although the lengthy 1965 session — it would be just one day short of the record 129 days set in 1937 — meant there was only enough in the budget to pay lawmakers for 32 days worth of lawmaking the next year.

— Ernest@coloradostatesman.com