| Title | Month | Year | Body |
|---|---|---|---|
| July/August 2010 | July | 2010 |
HALFWAY THROUGH SUMMER Can you believe that summer is half over? I’m seeing it as my flower gardens fill out and my vegetable garden reaches the point where I can harvest plenty of zucchini, green beans, peppers, and lettuce. It also means that it is time for us to fill out our primary election ballot. Don’t forget that ballots must be received by the county clerk as of Tuesday, August 10. You can either mail the ballot with one first-class stamp, or in Senate District 19, drop it off at Arvada Motor Vehicle, 6510 Wadsworth Boulevard, or Westminster City Hall, 4800 West 92nd Avenue.
LEGISLATIVE COFFEE ... |
| June 2010 - 2nd half | June | 2010 |
HOT SUMMER?
The temperatures have run hot and cold in June – I wish the economy would be more of the former and less of the latter! We passed a number of job-creation bills during the past legislative session (see the Voters’ Voice, page 2), and I’m hoping to see them make a big difference in Colorado as soon as they take effect this summer.
LEGISLATIVE COFFEE
Please come to my next Legislative Coffee this Thursday, June 3, 7:30 – 9:00 a.m. at ... |
| June 2010 | June | 2010 |
SUMMERTIME IN THE LEGISLATURE
This summer will be less eventful than 2009, because the Legislature passed a bill suspending interim committees for 2010. There are a few standing committees that continue to meet over the interim, such as the Capital Development Committee and the Audit Committee. Other committees will meet if they receive outside funding; the Economic Opportunity/Poverty Reduction Task Force, of which I am a member, is one in this category.... |
| End of May 2010 | May | 2010 |
INTERIM BEGINS
The 2010 session of the State Legislature (General Assembly) ended on May 12. We won’t reconvene until January 11, 2011 – we’re not allowed to, unless the Governor calls a “special session” for a specific, urgent purpose. The time in between sessions is called “the interim.” Legislators get paid only for 120 days (the session), but during the interim we continue to “work” by attending meetings, answering e-mails and phone calls, preparing bills we intend to sponsor during the next session, and doing a variety of other activities to stay in touch with our... |
| Mid-May 2010 | May | 2010 |
SESSION ABOUT TO "SIGN" OFF!
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... |
| May 2010 - 1st half | May | 2010 |
ALMOST DONE!
The Legislature is allowed to be in session for only 120 days. Any bills not passed by midnight on May 12, 2010, are dead. The Governor has 30 days after the end of the session to sign or veto all the bills that have been passed and have not yet been signed or vetoed. So far the Governor has signed 89 bills (and has not vetoed any). We are working furiously to consider all the remaining bills out of the 430 House Bills, 8 House Concurrent Resolutions, 209 Senate Bills, and 9 Senate Concurrent Resolutions that have been introduced. (A Concurrent Resolution is a bill that proposes to put something on the ballot... |
| April 2010 | April | 2010 |
LONG TIME FOR LONG BILL
The state budget bill is called the “Long Bill” because it is – yes – long, two inches thick, in fact, and that’s with printing on both sides of the pages. It’s so long that if you look it up on the Internet http://www.leg.state.co.us/clics/clics2010a/csl.nsf/StatusAll?OpenFrameset you’ll see that instead of the bill coming up, you get a table of contents, and you have to click on the parts individually. There are also a dozen bills that accompany it; they are necessary because they make... |
| March 2010 - 2nd half | March | 2010 |
GOOD NEWS, AND PAINFULLY BAD
The good news is that the March revenue forecast showed state revenues to be up enough to prevent any more reductions to the state budget (i.e., the good news is that things aren’t worse). The bad news is that we still have to make the cuts planned for the 2010-2011 budget. The 2010 session will go down in my personal history as the time I cast the most painful and ironic vote of my career, in favor of HB 1369, which reduces school funding by $260 million. It’s ironic because I first got involved in politics to play a role in providing... |
| March 2010 begins | March | 2010 |
MARCH ON!
March begins with a return to “normal” business, which is welcome after several late nights at the Capitol in February because of two bill marathons – one to eliminate a bunch of tax exemptions and the other to do budget-cutting for the current fiscal year. Somehow we managed to squeeze our regular bills into the calendar around those groups of special bills. On the last meeting day of February (Friday the 26th), the State Senate passed 50 bills!
REMINDER: LEGISLATIVE COFFEE THIS THURSDAY... |
| February 2010 - 2nd half | February | 2010 |
FEBRUARY FLURRY OF ACTIVITY!The first two weeks of February were a flurry of activity at the Capitol, with many meetings lasting until late into the night. People have been remarking that the pace is more like the last month of the session than the first month. (Yes, we’ve been in session only one month!)
TOWN HALL MEETING THIS SATURDAY Find out what’s going on with the state budget and how we plan... |
| February 2010 begins | February | 2010 |
IT’S FEBRUARY ALREADY!Time certainly has been flying by at the Legislature this year! We’ve already had several bills signed into law after only two and a half weeks. A few Senate committee hearings have lasted until after 8 p.m., but that’s nothing compared with the House burning the midnight oil twice last week to get budget-fixing bills done. Will the groundhog see its shadow on Tuesday? – I don’t know, but the state budget isn’t out of winter yet.
REMINDER: LEGISLATIVE COFFEE THIS THURSDAY
Please join your fellow... |
| January 2010 – 2nd half | January | 2010 |
THE LEGISLATURE RACES TO WORKThe State Senate got right to work on the very first day of the session, January 13, with a meeting of the Senate Education Committee and 2nd Reading by the Senate – all to pass SB 36, Program Results for Educator Preparation, by Senator Johnston. The bill was signed into law on Friday of the first week – a most unusual occurrence. The quick action was needed to help Colorado meet the deadline of January 19 to submit... |
| January 2010 | January | 2010 |
SESSION BEGINS Do you know how much money is in Colorado’s state treasury? How many different funds the money is in? What our state’s investment rating is? These are some of the questions that State Treasurer Cary Kennedy will answer this Saturday, January 16, at my monthly Town Hall Meeting, 10:30 a.m. to noon, at the Standley Lake Library. There will also be an informational presentation on changes required for preparing your federal taxes this year. ... |
| January 2010 | January | 2010 |
HOPEFUL NEW YEAR
Happy New Year! I am looking forward to the beginning of the 2010 session on January 13. With the impending cuts to the current year’s budget that we will need to approve (a total of $600 million) and the revenue for Fiscal Year 2011 projected to be $1.5 billion lower than the amount currently budgeted for FY 2010, you might ask why I’m hopeful. It’s because the recession appears to be over in Colorado, and the recovery has begun. The recovery won’t be quick, but it has begun, as we can see from the drop in the unemployment rate (to the lowest... |
| December 2009 | December | 2009 |
DECEMBER 2009 REMINDER
Don’t forget to join me on December 3, 7:30 – 8:30 a.m., at Panera’s, 7739 Wadsworth Blvd., for coffee (or tea or breakfast). I don’t have agendas for these Legislative Coffees and I don’t put on programs – so take advantage of the opportunity to chat with me about issues of concern to you. I am hosting these on the first Thursday of every month. REVIEW OF TOWN HALL MEETING ... |
| November 2009 reminder | November | 2009 |
REMINDER OF NOVEMBER TOWN HALL MEETING Don’t forget to join me this Saturday, November 21, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., at the Standley Lake Library. The topic will be “financial literacy” for adults to survive these tough economic times. The speakers will be from the Colorado Credit Union Association and the Colorado Bankers Association. |
| November 2009 | November | 2009 |
THANKS, AND NO THANKS
I think November is one of the best months of the year. On November 11 we remember our veterans; I really appreciate the risks they took and sacrifices they made for our country. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday – not just for the great food, but also to have the time to think about what I’m thankful for. One thing I’m very thankful for this year is that I was appointed to be the Vice Chair of the Senate Education Committee. I am also pleased that I will continue serving on the Senate Judiciary Committee and the Senate Finance Committee. ... |
| November 2009 Reminder | November | 2009 |
REMINDER FOR NOVEMBER COFFEEDon’t forget to join me on November 5, 7:30 - 8:30 a.m., at Panera’s, 7739 Wadsworth Blvd., for coffee (or tea or breakfast). I don’t have agendas for these Legislative Coffees and I don’t put on programs – so take advantage of the opportunity to chat with me about issues of concern to you. I am hosting these on the first Thursday of every month.
UPDATE ON STATE BUDGET On Wednesday,... |
| October 2009 | October | 2009 |
SET BACK THE CLOCKS, BUT NOT OUR STATE!
Daylight Savings is on Halloween night this fall – scary! But what is even scarier is the state’s economic situation, which forced the Governor recently to cut another $350 million from the state budget, and which will likely require the Legislature to cut millions more during the 2010 session. I got my start in the Legislature this past year at a time when we had to cut over a billion dollars from the budget, so I know we have already made all the “easy” cuts and did all the accounting “gimmicks... |
| September 2009 Update | September | 2009 |
REMINDER OF TOWN HALL MEETING & SPECIAL NOTE Don’t forget to attend my Town Hall Meeting tomorrow, Saturday, September 26, 10:30
PLEASE NOTE: The president of the Colorado Association of Libraries (CAL) will be making |
| Hudak’s Senate Notes – September 2009 | September | 2009 |
GEARING UP FOR THE NEXT SESSION
All the interim committees of the Legislature are currently focused on proposals for legislation for the 2010 session, since our deadline to get them in for bill drafting is mid-October. This deadline is early so the legislative staff can finish these bills before we legislators have to submit the 5 bills that we are permitted to sponsor on our own. It is amazing how much work the legislative staff does to get all the bills drafted. They put in many hours during the fall and winter, and especially during the period from... |
| Hudak’s Senate Notes –August 2009 | August | 2009 |
BUSY, BUSY! The level of activity of the interim committees is intense now, and I’m very involved with that work. Not only am I on two legislative interim committees – the ... |
| Hudak’s Senate Notes – July 2009 | July | 2009 |
THINGS ARE HEATING UP!
The goings-on at the Capitol are heating up, as the interim committees get into action. These committees will be working steadily for the next few months, because decisions need to be made by October about what legislation to put forward for the 2010 legislative session. I am on two committees (Early Childhood/School Readiness Commission and Economic Recovery/Poverty Reduction Task Force) and working on subcommittees of the Commission on Criminal and Juvenile Justice and for the Race to the Top grant. ... |
| Hudak’s Senate Notes – June 2009 | June | 2009 |
The 2009 session of the State Legislature (General Assembly) ended on May 6, and it won’t reconvene until January. Nevertheless, I’m discovering that the interim is rather busy.
TOWN HALL MEETINGS I will be hosting three Town Hall Meetings:
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| Hudak’s Senate Notes – End of Session, May 2009 | May | 2009 |
IT’S OVER!
The 2009 session of the State Legislature (General Assembly) – my very first! – is over. The pace was frantic during the final three weeks, and now we’re waiting to see which bills the Governor will sign and which he will veto. I do know that he will be signing the three Senate education bills that I sponsored – SB 90, 160, and 163 – on May 21 at the Career Education Center, 2650 Eliot Street (the time will be determined soon). Thus, he will have signed every bill... |
| Hudak’s Senate Notes – 1st half of April 2009 | April | 2009 |
APRIL SHOWERS During the first half of April, we were drenched by a downpour of bills. There have been more bills during the 2009 session than ever before, evident from the new folders our filing clerks had to create to store all the extra bills. Many of these bills contain the legal provisions needed to deal with the huge revenue shortfall of $1.4 billion for 2009 and 2010. We worked on the new budget bills in a marathon session on 2nd Reading that ended at 10:30 p.m. on April 9. TOWN... |
| Hudak's Senate Notes - 2nd half of March 2009 | March | 2009 |
TIME MARCHES ON It's hard to believe that March has ended already! The pace at the Capitol was almost frantic during the last few weeks. Our committees met until late in the evening so often, in order to get through all the bills, that it was a rare pleasure for me to get home for dinner, and one day when I was seen leaving at 5:30 p.m., a person joked that I must have been skipping out early. TOWN HALL MEETING: My next town hall meeting will be on Saturday, April 18, 10:30 a.m. - 12:00 p.m., at the ... |
| Hudak’s Senate Notes – 1st half of March 2009 | March | 2009 |
MARCH MADNESS!
March began with what was basically a filibuster that kept the State Senate in session on Monday, March 2, until 2:30 a.m. for the 2nd Reading of SB 228 (see below). I’m not positive, but this might be a first for the Colorado General Assembly. The rest of the first two weeks of March were filled with lengthy committee meetings and the passage of many bills. ... |
| Hudak's Senate Notes - 2nd half of February 2009 | February | 2009 |
END OF FEBRUARY February never stopped being busy. People who have worked in the Capitol in previous years say that this was one of the busiest they can remember. Most likely it is because we had to pass bills to deal with the huge shortfall in revenue in order to balance the current year's budget, while meeting the regular deadline to pass all Senate bills that were not granted "late bill" status or assigned to the Appropriations Committee. KEY ACTIONS (the most important things that happened in the Legislature in February):
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| Hudak’s Senate Notes – 1st half of February 2009 | February | 2009 |
TIME FLIES IN FEBRUARY!
The first two weeks of February were very busy at the Capitol. All Senate bills were required to be heard in the Senate committee(s) they were assigned to (except Appropriations) by Thursday, February 12 (unless they were granted “late bill” status).
TOWN HALL MEETING: I will hold my very first town hall meeting on Saturday, February 21, 10:30 a.m. to noon, at Standley Lake High School,... |
| August 2010 - 2nd half | January | 2009 |
BACK TO SCHOOL, NOT SESSION
It’s around this time of the year, when kids are going back to school, that people start wondering when the Legislature goes back into session. Not until January! The Legislature is in session only 5 months a year, from January to May. We can’t be in session right now, because the general election is in November. All 65 seats of the House of Representatives are up for election, and half of the Senate seats are too. Most of my colleagues are busy campaigning.
NEXT TOWN HALL MEETING
Don’t forget to attend my monthly Town... |
| Hudak's Senate Notes | January | 2009 |
OFF TO A HECTIC START!
COMMITTEES:
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