Forty-Five Years Ago This Week: 1981 marked the first year, following the passage of Amendment 9 years earlier, that the newly formed reapportionment commission would meet. According to the amendment, the commission had to hold its first meeting no later than Aug. 1 and would have 90 days to publish its preliminary plan for reapportionment to redraw the state’s legislative boundaries.

Colorado voters had passed Amendment 9 in 1974, an initiative designed to take away legislative reapportionment authority from legislators, who themselves benefited — or suffered — from the redrawn boundaries. The legislative process of reapportionment was replaced with the commission and the final approval of the redrawn boundaries was granted to the Colorado Supreme Court.

The Colorado Reapportionment Commission was comprised of 11 members with four appointed by the legislature, three by the governor, and four by the Chief Justice of the Colorado Supreme Court.

Senate Majority Leader Ralph Cole, R-Littleton, was vocal in his opposition to the plan and said repeatedly that he believed the proper place for reapportionment was with the legislature. 

Both supporters and detractors of the commission commented that there was no plan for staffing the new entity. One proposal suggested that the General Assembly’s own Legislative Council staff the commission, but others argued staff should be completely separate from the legislative process.

While Amendment 9 stipulated that the Legislature was required to ‘adequately’ fund the commission, it did not define ‘adequate.’ Supporters of the commission said they were worried that those who would like to see the commission fail would have a different definition of adequate funding than those who wanted to see it succeed.

In other news, Colorado Republican Party Chair Phil Winn finally received official word that he had been appointed assistant secretary and federal housing commissioner for the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

The position involved supervising a multi-million dollar portfolio of federally assisted housing programs, public housing and mortgage insurance programs. Winn had a long history in the housing industry and was the CEO of Philip D. Winn Associates, a real estate development and property acquisition firm.

Winn said he was happy and looked forward to being confirmed by the Senate in late February and moving to Washington D.C. in March.

Winn’s term as state chairman didn’t end until March 6, but he had already asked Bo Callaway to step in right away and make sure he was familiar with the situation.

“But Bo is real hesitant about doing that so it’s still pretty much the same around the ol’ chicken restaurant.”

The multi-millionaire Callaway told the Colorado Statesman that the $53,000-per-year salary was a shock.

“Of course, we can’t live on that, I’ll have to borrow money from the mother-in-law,” Callaway joked.

Twenty-Five Years Ago: Rep. Bryan Jameson’s, D-Fort Collins, House Bill 01-1059, which would have provided tax incentives to qualified teachers to pursue continuing education, was killed 6-5 in the House Finance Committee.

The state would have provided tax credits to teachers with non-reimbursed tuition expenses for continuing education in years when the state had excess revenues. Jameson said that to qualify, a teacher would have to teach full-time in a Colorado public school for at least three years prior to receiving the credit and would also be required to complete a qualified continuing education course.

“This would have been more than a financial incentive for our teachers,” Jameson said. “It would have been a statement that our teachers are valuable resources in Colorado and that we are committing to supporting them.”

The bill failed on a party-line vote, with all six Republicans voting no.

Rachael Wright is the author of several novels, including The Twins of Strathnaver, with degrees in Political Science and History from Colorado Mesa University, and is a contributing columnist to Colorado Politics, the Colorado Springs Gazette, and the Denver Gazette.