Committees in the General Assembly’s House and Senate are clearing the decks of the 354 bills left over from the earlier part of the session so they can focus on the budget, school finance and bills tied to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Some dissent rose on Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee, chaired by Sen. Pete Lee, a Colorado Springs Democrat. The committee had 17 bills on their docket, and they killed all but one, but the one that survived has the committee’s Republicans grumbling with accusations of favoritism.

Democratic leaders in the General Assembly have made it clear that bills from earlier in the year that carry a cost, explained in the bills’ fiscal notes, are going down in flames.

Which is why the decision to pass House Bill 1196, sponsored by Lee and Senate Majority Leader Steve Fenberg of Boulder, brought about some dissent. It updates state law around mobile home parks and tenant rights.

The committee quickly approved the bill on a party-line vote, despite its $8,000 cost. The fiscal note states that the expenses will be borne out of the budget of the Department of Local Affairs, although DOLA’s budget, like all others, was cut during the Joint Budget Committee action in the prior three weeks.

The bill now heads to Senate Appropriations, which is led by JBC members Sens. Rachel Zenzinger of Arvada and Dominick Moreno of Commerce City. 

Lee’s defense of his bill drew complaints from Sen. Bob Gardner, a Colorado Springs Republican, who complained about other bills being killed while the mobile home bill continues on.

Lee and Sen. Jack Tate, a Centennial Republican, went back and forth over a bill limiting the use of the gay panic defense. Lee questioned whether the bill – House Bill 1307 – was needed, stating he’d never heard of that defense being used in Colorado. But Tate pointed out that the bill was backed by the district attorneys’ council and that the defense had been used as recently as a year ago.

“It’s not compelling” in this current environment, Lee added, but encouraged the sponsors to bring it back next year. That won’t be Tate; he announced in late 2018 that he would not seek re-election to his senate seat. 

Lee moved to postpone the bill indefinitely, leading Gardner to complain that “If it has mobile homes and the right sponsors,” it passes.

The committee also postponed a bill, another carried by Tate, that would reconfigure the administration of the Regional Transportation District. Senate Bill 151 was backed by advocates for the disabled, given its language prohibiting discrimination against people with disabilities for transportation services. It also establishes campaign finance limits for RTD directors, adds gubernatorial appointees to the RTD board and requires the board to meet monthly instead of quarterly.

But its $1.8 million cost was a deal-breaker, and it was postponed on a unanimous 5-0 vote.