Legislators make their mark through their sponsored bills. Sponsored bills show what issues legislators commit to, their bipartisan collegiality, their productivity in bills passed versus bills killed, and their dispositions related to bills that function as messages versus bills intended to become law. Legislators are supposed to sponsor no more than five bills, but only six House members kept to that maximum.

Ten House members sponsored 20 or more bills. Rep. Bob Rankin, R-Carbondale, with 29 bills, was the only Republican in the group. He joined Joint Budget Committee members Reps. Millie Hamner, D-Summit County, who sponsored 42 bills, and Dave Young, D-Greeley, who sponsored 32 bills, in sponsoring budget legislation from the JBC. He also succeeded passing bills to fund public schools, including legislation to create a public school fund investment board.

Rep. Tracy Kraft-Tharp, D-Arvada, sponsored 20 bills, 18 of which were bipartisan, and passed 19, for the highest pass rate in the House of 95 percent. The governor recently vetoed her bill, Senate Bill 16-169, affecting the amount of time a person in a mental health crisis can spend in jail rather than at a treatment facility.

Hickenlooper’s veto cancelled out Kraft-Tharp’s bipartisan efforts with Rep. Lois Landgraf, R-Colorado Springs, and Sens. Beth Martinez-Humenik, R-Thornton, and John Cooke, R-Greeley, who worked with hospitals, emergency facilities, law enforcement, and mental health organizations to get medical care more quickly to these individuals.

Rep. Jeni Arndt, D-Ft Collins, had the lowest Democratic pass rate in the House at 30 percent with 15 bills sponsored. The Senate was not kind to her legislation, killing six of her bills.

Rep. Jonathan Singer, D-Longmont, ran 23 bills, 13 of which were bipartisan, but only eight passed, giving him the second lowest Democratic pass rate at 35 percent. Senators killed eight of his bills before they reached the House. Seven bills with his name on them died in his chamber. Senate Bill 16-123, a bill affecting tolls and numbers of passengers in HOV and HOT lanes along the Boulder corridor, gave drivers and riders a break. The bill passed the Senate but went down in House Transportation on an 11-2 vote.

Three representatives passed no bills among 16 they sponsored: Reps. Clarice Navarro, R-Pueblo, Janak Joshi, R-Colorado Springs, and Stephen Humphrey, R-Eaton. Of the 16 bills between them, 15 were killed in House committees. Reps. Justin Everett, R-Littleton, and Patrick Neville, R-Parker, had no bipartisan bills out of a dozen between them. They each passed one bill, and the rest were killed in the House.

Joshi, Humphrey, Everett and Neville are known for their message bills, and they covered all the bases: firearms, unborn children, ammunition, freedom of religion, labor unions, taxes, elections, and parents’ bill of rights.

Not all House Republicans caught the back of the Democrats’ hand. Rep. Dan Nordberg, R-Colorado Springs, ran 13 bills and passed 11 for an 85-percent pass rate. His most prominent legislation involved requiring PERA to divest from companies that have economic prohibitions against Israel.

Rep. Catherine “Kit” Roupe, R-Colorado Springs, passed three bills even though only one of four she sponsored was bipartisan. She did not run any message bills. The bill she sponsored that has the most impact on Coloradans involves allowing law enforcement to issue summonses rather than warrants in certain cases, reducing jail time and expense.

Twenty-four House members passed fewer than half of the bills they sponsored – 14 Republicans and 10 Democrats. Twenty-one of those 24 exceeded the five-bill rule, possibly proving the saying that “less is more.”