Mid-May 2010

The General Assembly will end the 2010 session at some time on Wednesday, May 12.  The motion to end the session is called "sine die" which means "without the day" in Latin, or "without assigning a further meeting" in parliamentary procedure.  (This term is pronounced "see-nay D-A" in Latin, but most people pronounce it "sign-knee dye" because they didn't study Latin.)   No "further meeting" needs to be set, however, because there is always a Joint Resolution which sets the beginning date for the next session, mandated by law to be the second Wednesday in January.  The 2011 session will begin on January 12.  The session cannot exceed 120 days, which is May 11, 2011.

My next Town Hall Meeting is this Saturday, May 15, 10:30 a.m. to noon, at theStandley Lake Library, 8485 Kipling Street.  I will do a brief review of the legislative session, and then local transit activist Bob Wilson will discuss transit and highway projects in and around Senate District 19, including the Gold Line to Arvada/Wheat Ridge, which is part of RTD's FasTracks program; the work on the US-36 bus rapid transit highway project; and the transportation project that is planned for the Westminster Mall (my Town Hall in June will cover the Westminster Mall redevelopment).  Note: I will continue to have Town Hall meetings during the summer and fall, with the possible exceptions of August and September. 

 

 

With a large projected budget shortfall next year, $300 million of which could hit higher education, potentially forcing the closure of many of our state colleges, the Legislature is in the process of passing SB 3, Higher Education Flexibility.  This bipartisan bill, sponsored by Senate Majority Leader John Morse and Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry, will keep Colorado's colleges and universities open and ensure that they are accessible to all students in Colorado who want to attend, regardless of their parents' income.  It gives our colleges and universities flexibility in their operations and admissions, as well as the flexibility to keep their doors open during these difficult times without asking for higher taxes from citizens.  Specifically, the bill directs the Colorado Commission on Higher Education (CCHE), the Governor's Strategic Committee on Higher Education, and Colorado's colleges and universities to submit a plan to the General Assembly's Joint Budget Committee explaining how they would handle a potential 50% cut in state funding of higher education next year.  The bill also allows the governing boards of the colleges and universities to continue to have the ability to raise tuition by up to 9% a year, but if they choose to raise tuition by more than that, they must submit a plan to CCHE showing how they can increase tuition while also protecting access to low- and middle-income Colorado students, likely by simultaneously increasing student aid.

 

Last week, the Senate approved legislation that will help Coloradans get the training they need to find jobs amidst new and rapidly changing workforce demands.  SB 202, the Savings Accounts for Job Retraining Program, authorizes the CollegeInvest program to promote and administer Job Retraining Accounts that are employee-owned, employer-matched, transferable accounts used to finance additional training or education.  SB 202 provides workers with a helpful means of paying for their own advanced training and achieving their career goals, and it creates counseling services to provide training planning and preparation tools.

These are the bills I sponsored this year which have already been signed into law:

These are the bills I sponsored this year that are awaiting the Governor's signature:

These bills are still going through the legislative process:

 

For descriptions of these bills and additional information, see my website.

As has been the custom in Senate District 19 for the last decade, we will be printing a new edition of the Voters Voice after the session ends and begin delivering it in the middle of June. In case you forgot, this is the publication that covers the highlights of what was accomplished during the legislative session. My website will continue to have last year’s edition posted on it.

 

Rachel Flatt, the 2010 National Ladies Figure Skating Champion is from Colorado Springs. She was in the Senate on Friday, and I was fortunate to have this photo taken; also, here is a photo of Rachel while she’s skating: