The Colorado General Assembly is apt to cram a lot of stuff into the waning days of each year’s 120-day legislative session. That is the case again this year as the session rushes to final adjournment Wednesday. There’s even a legend that the Legislature once or twice actually stopped the clock before it ticked midnight on the final day in order to complete the House and Senate leadership’s agenda.

But those days are gone. Now, lawmakers are less tempted to hold the all-important state budget or school finance bills hostage until certain people in high places get what they want.

No, today’s strategy is sneakier than that. Now, the special interests lobby to introduce late bills, grease them through committees and pass whatever they are on the floor. The whole process is compressed into such a short time at the end of the session that most legislators and virtually the entire public are kept in the dark.

Read more at The Pueblo Chieftain.