Author: John Tomasic
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Getting punchy: Vote on Salazar parole bill fuels fleeting end-of-session levity
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In the end, state House Speaker Crisanta Duran was fully taken with laughter. It started with some smiling and chuckling and then it was full-throated as she reported the vote count on House Bill 1308. It was another sign — a light-hearted sign this time — that the legislative session is hurtling toward its end.…
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#Coleg Week 17: Hospital fee, high-risk pools, transportation reprise, forced pooling, Columbus Day, sanctuary cities
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The big game this week will strut into the open on Tuesday at 8:40 a.m., when the Senate Appropriations Committee is scheduled to hear Senate Bill 267, the forebodingly titled “Sustainability of Rural Colorado” proposal. The bill would rescue the proposed state budget from its wretchedness by refilling $500 million in hospital cuts and generating…
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Slow-motion replay: Cooke unleashes legislative jiu jitsu on energy efficiency program
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Sate Sen. John Cooke, a Republican from Greeley, played point-man Thursday in an effort to kill a popular Colorado energy efficiency program, which he argued was an absurd waste of money and a form social engineering. But House Bill 1227, which would reauthorize the ten-year-old program, isn’t dead yet, and its bipartisan supporters didn’t submit…
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That Grantham speech on doomed transportation bill may haunt the Capitol
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The session’s unloved grand bipartisan transportation measure, House Bill 1242, is dead, but the closing remarks — you might say the sickbed epitaph — delivered for the bill by Republican sponsor and Senate President Kevin Grantham are worth revisiting, especially given that, in the last week, and with a little more than a week left…
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In light of recent gas patch events, Boulder casts Coffman court case as absurd
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Boulder County’s moratorium on new oil and gas drilling expires in three days — but the lawsuit seeking to lift that moratorium will continue, for now. On Wednesday, Boulder District Judge Norma Sierra denied the county’s motion to dismiss the lawsuit, which was filed early in the year by state Attorney General Cynthia Coffman and…
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Colorado drilling commission pressed on fatal Front Range gas patch home explosion
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The fact that the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission held a press conference Thursday to address the deadly house explosion that rocked Firestone last week was the main news to emerge from the meeting. The April 17 explosion killed two men. There is no evidence linking the explosion to oil and gas operations. But…
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Give us the news: Lynchpin hospital fee bill still under wraps
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“Senate Bill 267 will be laid over,” said Appropriations Committee Chair Kevin Lundberg. “We’ll begin now with…” But the room wasn’t listening to him anymore. Nearly all of the reporters and lobbyists sitting arrayed before the committee members rose from their chairs at once and headed to the door. “Thank you for coming, everyone,” joked…
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Touted energy efficiency program re-up hits legislative speed bump
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A bipartisan bill to reauthorize a popular and by most accounts dramatically successful utility-run energy efficiency program in the state was detoured Wednesday on its way to the Senate floor. Republicans on the Senate agricultural and energy committee voted as a bloc to send House Bill 1227 to the hardline Senate finance committee. Supporters of…
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State Senate declares May motorcycle safety month with personal, cautionary two-wheel tales
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State Sen. John Kafalas, the diminutive Democrat from Fort Collins, drew a word-picture of himself climbing onto a Harley Davidson. “I know it’s hard t believe, but I’ve ridden Harleys, and as long as they’re low riders, I can touch the ground and hold the bike up,” he said, drawing howls from the chamber. “Back…
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Speaker Duran, business, regional groups urge GOP Senate committee members to pass transportation bill
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State House Speaker Crisanta Duran on Tuesday morning in a statement urged Senate Finance Committee Republicans to advance to the Senate floor the major bipartisan transportation bill she has sponsored with Senate President Kevin Grantham. The bill’s prospects of making it past the committee have grown dark and darker over the last week. House Bill…