Gov. Polis held a press conference on Tuesday, an event that is becoming about as regular and unremarkable as the sunrise or rush hour. At this one, however, a couple of noteworthy developments were actually announced. First, the adoption of a new level of COVID restrictions (essentially lockdown-lite) and its pending imposition on a bunch of counties; and second, the call for a special session of the state legislature to dole out some $220 million in COVID-related relief funding.

There are political considerations as to the timing of the special session, of course, including the need to throw a few crumbs to beleaguered restaurants as lockdowns are re-imposed (if prohibiting restaurants from offering indoor service in December in Colorado is not a lockdown, what is?), and of course the desire to take an additional swipe at the current president before he leaves office (it would be unseemly for Democrats to criticize a lack of federal funding with Biden in the White House).

But the call for a special session is, in important ways, a welcome development on the part of the governor. At the very least it serves as a recognition on his part that there are limits to his authority, and that the state is still governed by a set of laws and a system for making those laws, COVID or no COVID. This is a considerable and refreshing improvement over his approach earlier this year in which he arbitrarily took it upon himself to decide for the legislature how to spend millions in COVID relief funding.

Polis deserves credit for this, but a great deal ought to be reserved for Sen. Bob Rankin as well. The senior JBC member dedicated a considerable amount of time in hammering that message home to the governor’s office -even in the midst of his own reelection campaign that turned out to be one of the closest in the state. Rankin has a reputation for being one of the workhorses of the Senate, one that is well-earned.

The first, and always best, question is: where is this money coming from? Well, you may recall that near the beginning of the COVID mess, one of the more appropriate actions the governor took was to delay the collection of income tax receipts. Those revenues have now come in and were greater than expected, giving some room in the budget.

On first blush, much of what is on the precursory agenda, given the circumstances, seems reasonable, even if some of it is in reaction to questionable policies previously adopted; for instance, if you are going to tell bars and restaurants they can’t operate, it is not unreasonable to allow them to at least keep whatever sales tax they can collect. Similarly, if you are going to impose an eviction moratorium, assistance for property owners who depend on rental income is not out of the question.

The devil, as they say, will be in the details, and it will be incumbent on the minority in each chamber to keep an eye on those. But it is noteworthy that the legislative Republicans, for the most part, are coming willingly to the table, and appear eager to work with the majority to hammer out the most prudent fiscal response.

While the special session holds at least the potential to be a net positive, I have a few suggestions: first, If you are going to hold a press conference offering a monumental announcement, have the details worked out – little things, like when the special session is to start, or which counties are falling under the newly-announced restrictions, can be important; second, in the spirit of recognizing executive limitations, how about asking for similar legislative approval for each extension of the emergency declaration?

And finally, a couple of ideas for inclusion on the special session agenda: first, why not introduce a measure to clarify that small businesses which sell the same products as big box stores are allowed to remain open for the duration of the public health crisis? And second, an altogether reasonable suggestion from Jefferson County’s lone remaining Republican legislator, Rep. Colin Larson – if we are serious about helping out small businesses through this time, how about delaying the implementation of legislation passed earlier this year that will impede their recovery, specifically HB 1420, SB 205, and SB 207? And while we’re at it, delaying the onset of a minimum wage-hike scheduled for 2021 that will sever the last thread that many small businesses and restaurants will be clinging to, if they make it that far?

Exploring policy along those lines might just minimize the need for the legislature to periodically reconvene to discuss emergency distributions in the first place.