Hudak's Senate Notes

OFF TO A HECTIC START!

My first few weeks as your State Senator were very hectic, as I think will be the case throughout this session.  Here are the key pieces of information I think you want to know.

COMMITTEES:

• I have been assigned to serve on three committees -Judiciary, Education, and Finance; I am the Vice Chair of the Senate Finance Committee.    
• One purpose of committees is to provide oversight of various state departments.  The Judiciary Committee oversees the departments of Law, Public Safety, Corrections, and Homeland Security, as well as the Judicial Department.  The Education Committee has oversight of the departments of Education and Higher Education.  The Finance Committee is in charge of the departments of Revenue and Treasury, the Office of State Planning and Budgeting, and the Public Employees Retirement Association.   
• The first order of business in our committee meetings has been to hear reports from those departments, in order to understand what they are working on and what their budget concerns are.  The Joint Budget Committee also briefed us on these departments' budget requests and priorities.    
• Committees mainly serve to take public input on bills and determine whether they should go forward.  Each of my three committees has considered several bills, including two of my own: SB 38 in the Judiciary Committee and SB 90 in the Education Committee (the bills are described below).

MY BILLS:

I am the prime sponsor of four bills; two of my bills have been introduced so far:

• SB 38 - Clarification of Judicial Fees - This is a technical "clean-up" to correct a couple of errors made in a bill passed last year that increased some judicial fees in order to pay for the construction of a state Judicial Center, which will house all the state judicial courts and offices currently scattered in numerous buildings.  The Judicial Center will take over the city block where the Colorado History Museum sits, so some of the funding will rebuild the museum.   
• SB 90 - Parent Involvement in Education - This creates an advisory committee to research and recommend best practices for parent involvement in education.  The bill increases the number of parents allowed on school and district accountability committees and on various education boards and commissions.  Finally, it allows grants to fund parent education programs.

I am the Senate sponsor on a number of House bills; three of them have been introduced so far:

• HB 1072 (with Rep. Middleton) - Library Districts - This clarifies the governance of library districts and requires the creation of maps of all library districts.   
• HB 1116 (with Rep. Frangas) - Children's Dental Program Moneys - This allows state funding to go to the Children's Dental Plan Cash Fund.   
• HB 1125 (with Rep. Merrifield) - Limit Incentives for School Attendance - This prohibits schools and school districts from offering financial incentives for enrolling in their programs.

KEY ISSUES:
There are three big issues that the General Assembly will be working on this year:
   

• JOBS - The Governor created a special task force to recommend bills that would result in job creation; the bills from this committee are just now being introduced.   
• TRANSPORTATION - The key legislation on transportation this year is SB 108, known as "FASTER," Funding Advancement for Surface Transportation and Economic Recovery, which will generate funding for critical road and bridge safety projects and establish a foundation for a future multimodal funding system for bridges and roads.   

• BUDGET SHORTFALL - The state revenue projected for the current year's budget fell more than $600 million behind expectations; the Governor has proposed spending reductions and cuts from now through the end of June, and the Legislature will make the very difficult decisions on what the cutbacks will be.  In addition, estimates of revenue for the next fiscal year indicate that further cuts will be necessary in the 2009-2010 budget.