As the state assembly gears up for its 2022 sessions, so do House representatives from districts in the region.

State representatives Terri Carver, R-Colorado Springs (House District 20) and Assistant House Minority Leader Tim Geitner, R-Falcon (HD-19) spoke to a small audience Nov. 13 at the Tri-Lakes Chamber of Commerce community room in Monument for a joint town hall event with Sen. Paul Lundeen, R-District 19. However, Lundeen was unable to make the meeting due to last-minute responsibilities.

Carver and Geitner provided updates regarding their involvements with a variety of legislation and respective committees. Later, they turned the program over to a Q-and-A, with each person in attendance having the opportunity to ask questions and express concerns.

Carver, who represents House District 20 which includes Palmer Lake and the Air Force Academy from the Douglas County line to The Broadmoor, west of I-25, serves on the House Judiciary Committee and the Business Affairs & Labor Committee. She said she has been fighting against what she frankly calls anti-police bills and get-out-of-jail-early bills, a battle which is expected to continue into 2022.

Carver called attention to a piece of legislation which was worked in bipartisan fashion in both the state house and senate and included extensive work with the business community. The legislation resulted in the strongest consumer data privacy bill (SB21-190) in the country and took three years to put together, Carver said.

“It was to provide individuals some control over their personal data collected by companies online and have a say whether or not a company can collect that data when buying goods or services, sell the data to a third party or use the data to track consumers online,” she said.

Carver said it is fair to say the act is being looked at as the model of a possible federal data privacy act since the vast majority of it deals with shopping online and browsing websites.

Next year, Carver intends to be introducing bills which are centered around public safety, the ongoing fight against human trafficking and to strengthen the state’s laws regarding crime victims, she said.

“Shouldn’t we have a criminal justice system that does justice for crime victims and deters crime?” Carver said. “I think those are key components to any criminal justice system.”

Geitner represents House District 19, from the western side of I-25 from the Douglas County to Pueblo County lines in El Paso County. He enters his fourth legislative session next year and sits on the Education Committee, of which education is his primary focus, he said.

With his children being homeschooled and his wife starting a charter school, “Education is truly a good fit for me and it accounts for a third of the state’s budget. I’m honored and humbled to be able to serve on that committee,” Geitner said.

In addition, Geitner serves on the school interim finance committee. Presently, Colorado operates under the School Finance Act of 1996 and he said updating the two-decades old legislation may be in order.

“Things have changed quite a bit in 25 years,” Geitner said. “We’ll be looking at that to make sure the funding is meeting the child, so the student has the best capacity for their success. That’s the purpose of the committee.”

Among other education legislation, Geitner said he was one of the prime sponsors, along with Sen. Lundeen, of Isaiah’s Law (HB21-1059), which concerns protections for students engaged in online learning from their own private residences. A bill which generated from the e-learning environment which school district’s were forced to provide with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“One of the main marks of the bill is to draw a line that the private residence of a student is in no way shape or form to be considered a school facility,” Geitner said. “So things that may happen naturally in an online environment at home will not get them into trouble as if it happened in a classroom setting and tarnish their record.”

A military reserve officer (Army National Guard), Geitner said advocacy for veterans is also high on his radar, particularly Gold Star families and Gold Star spouses, and this year he offered a house joint resolution which would have allowed for people in Colorado to weigh in on specifically their homestead exemption including Gold Star spouses. This would have impacted approximately 150 Gold Star spouses in the state and only cost about $93,000, he said.

While the resolution made its way through committee and the House, approved unanimously, without any issues, it was assigned to the Senate veteran committee and that is where it died, Geitner said. However, Geitner said he will be bringing that resolution back next year.

“Veterans are a treasure of the people in Colorado,” he said. “I feel pretty optimistic about the resolution this time. I think that’s a small way we can pay tribute to those Gold Star families and the sacrifices they’ve laid down for the entire nation.”

Carver and Geitner went on to field questions regarding get-out-of-jail-early laws, the continued defeat of repealing the Charter School Act, concerns regarding additional education resources for students and their families, energy base load power generation and additional costs of changes, ways state legislation can arm small municipalities to have better control over real estate development, water rights, homestead exemptions being transferrable for seniors and school finance reform.

The next regular session of the 73rd General Assembly will convene Jan. 12.