Colorado House and Senate Democratic leaders Monday gave themselves a pat on the back after Friday’s 2019 legislative session wrap-up, pointing to “promises made, promises kept” on equal pay, local minimum wage, full day kindergarten and climate change.

“We worked across the aisle as much as we could,” Speaker of the House KC Becker told reporters Monday. 

The session encompassed promises made to voters on the 2018 campaign trail, said House Majority Leader Alec Garnett of Denver. That applied most to the areas of education and health care, the Democrats’ top priorities (and the governor’s, too).

On health care, Garnett pointed to bills on lowering prescription drug costs, whether it’s insulin or other high-cost drugs that could be imported from Canada, as well as a measure that will eliminate out-of-network surprise billing. 

Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg of Boulder called the session one of the “most transformative” ever.

“There isn’t a single person in Colorado who won’t be impacted by this session,” he said.

The Democratic leaders also addressed Republican efforts to slow down the agenda, particularly on some of the hot-button issues they most opposed such as oil and gas – and Senate Bill 181, which the governor signed on April 12. 

Fenberg claimed many of the bills most opposed by Republicans finished in a different form than when they were introduced.

“We listened to people who disagreed with us,” Fenberg said, adding that 95 percent of the bills passed had bipartisan votes.

Many of the issues addressed in 2019 were repeats from previous sessions, Fenberg pointed out. As a result, bills on those issues were ready to go early on.

The General Assembly also passed a bill and two resolutions dealing with workplace culture within the state Capitol.

Senate Bill 244 put into place the legislature’s workplace harassment policy, the result of work from a 2018 interim committee created following last year’s rash of harassment complaints at the Capitol. In the session’s final days, the legislature also passed a joint resolution that included a prohibition against harassment committed by lobbyists.

Democrats also addressed the upcoming November election, which will include a ballot question sent by the General Assembly on allowing sports betting, which would be taxed to help support the state water plan and to combat gambling addiction.

Another measure would allow the state to spend the tax revenue it collects without refunding it back to taxpayers when the revenue exceeds spending limits set forth under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR).

Becker said that polling completed by outside groups indicates those measures have broad support, and Senate President Leroy Garcia said the time for those conversations is now.

“As long as there’s a plan” behind those measures, voters will see them as fair, he said.

The state water plan, which will need at least $3 billion in state funding over the next 20 years, is part of how Democrats are selling the sports betting question.

Garnett, one of the bill’s sponsors, said the revenue from that measure is expected to reach as much as $11 million in its first year and could provide a revenue stream of up to $25 million in out-years.

“This will go a long way to funding the water plan,” he said.

While the plan has so far put money into water quality, the new revenue could fund stream management, including for the Colorado River, Becker added.

“Even $10 million will make a difference,” she said.

The Democrats also pushed back against claims made by Republicans that they were unapproachable during the session. Fenberg pointed to more than 100 meetings around the oil and gas measure and almost as many amendments, as well as major changes to the FAMLI leave and sex ed bills.

“I’m not saying everyone is happy with the result,” he said. “It would be a mischaracterization to say sponsors put on blinders and didn’t listen.”

“The legislative process worked. We did it the Colorado way,” added Garnett.

And how did threats of recalls affect the session? According to Garnett, the strategy employed by Republicans – when a bill came up they didn’t like, they often threatened a recall – underestimated the broad support for many of the policies and bills.

“If they overreach” in trying for taxpayer-funded recall elections, it’s “a sign of the end of the Republican Party,” Garnett said.