The four leaders of the Colorado General Assembly laid out their priorities for the session that starts next week, and while there’s room for agreement on just what the priorities are, how to get there is another matter.

The leaders spoke during a question-and-answer session Thursday morning for the fourth annual Legislative Preview Breakfast hosted by the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce.

Chamber President Kelly Brough outlined the Chamber’s legislative priorities, led by transportation. “Economically, there’s an urgency to do something. The economy will suffer if we fail,” she said. The Chamber is encouraged by the governor’s recent decision to use some additional state revenues to fund transportation, but there is still significant unmet need, Brough said, and should be dealt with by a statewide ballot measure.

The chamber will look at the costs of healthcare, which Brough said is one of the greatest struggles for employers and employees. It makes the difference between hiring and giving raises or paying for employee healthcare. The state pension plan is also a focus, Brough said, and that the chamber is working with a “diverse group of stakeholders to make sure the plan is financially sound.”

Finding a way to cover the unfunded liability of the Public Employees Retirement Association is also a priority for Republicans. Senate President Kevin Grantham of Canon City spoke of “structural changes” that Republicans believe will protect current retirees and keep the promises made to PERA employees.

But the top priority for Republicans appears to be transportation and just how to pay for the state’s $30 billion in repairs and improvements to roads and transportation infrastructure.

Recent revenue numbers showed the state has more revenue that can go to transportation, and Tuesday, the governor proposed a boost of $148 million. 

“What do you do with more money than you’re supposed to have?” Grantham said. The governor’s proposal is a good start, but just a start, he said. Grantham also indicated he believed  transportation projects could be funded by the budget, a reversal of his position a year ago, when he was a co-sponsor of a measure to ask voters for a state sales tax increase. The extra revenue, Grantham said, can be allocated toward transportation every year, with the state able to bond against those dollars to fund billions of dollars in projects.

Grantham said the time had come for lawmakers to fulfill promises made to voters in 2005 through the passage of Referendum C, a time-out on TABOR that he said should have put $18 billion into transportation during the past 12 years. Instead, transportation got only $49 million, Grantham said. “We can allocate new money and revenues toward transportation. That’s our opportunity.”

House Republican leader Patrick Neville of Castle Rock agreed with using existing state revenues to pay for transportation rather than seeking a ballot measure in the fall. “The money is there and has always been there,” he said, adding there is no need to go to voters for a tax increase that he said they wouldn’t support anyway.

Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran took a different position; while she supports the recent investment in transportation proposed by the governor, “I don’t think the answer is taking more money from state revenues,” she said. “Let’s go to the people for more help.” She also disputed that voters wouldn’t support a tax increase, pointing to polling early in the session a year ago that showed 70 percent of voters would support a small tax increase for transportation. ‘I think the people of Colorado are ready for it.”

Could 2018 be the year that the General Assembly figures out the rural broadband issue? There appears to be hope, based on comments by all four lawmakers.

A bill to dedicate a $38 million fund known as the High Cost Support Mechanism to companies that will build out the infrastructure died on the last day of the 2017 session, but Grantham indicated a solution is already in the works for the next session. The sticking point has been opposition from CenturyLink, which has received the lion’s share of the HCSM for years yet has not built enough of the broadband infrastructure desired in rural counties.

It’s not just about Internet access. Speaker of the House Crisanta Duran said said funding the build-out with the HCSM would help with healthcare, education and small business development in rural communities.

To CenturyLink, Comcast and Viaero, Senate Democratic leader Lucia Guzman of Denver had just one message: get with the program! As an example, Guzman, who has championed rural broadband for years, pointed out that Saquache County, south of Gunnison, has the worst broadband service in the nation. “We cannot let this continue,” she said.

The high costs of healthcare and lack of provider options in rural Colorado is also a concern for 2018. Grantham pointed out that while the hospital provider fee bill last year helped rural hospitals, there’s much more to be done on improved access to care and affordability. Grantham said health care is an issue that will be led in his caucus by Sen. Jim Smallwood of Parker.

“This is something we will be discussing from here to eternity, like marijuana,” Grantham said. “Every time you think you’ve fixed it…”

Democrats’ ideas center around a “public option,” which is currently circulating among Democrats in Washington. Under the public option idea, a plan similar to Medicaid would be available for anyone, not just low-income residents. Guzman said her caucus is working that legislation for 2018.

Photo courtesy Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce, Dave Anderson on InSync Photography + Design.