THIS WEEK IN THE LEGISLATURE

0 Comments | Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Mar 31, 2008 | by - Michael Davidson

Agenda

Today: The Senate gets its chance to look over the 2008-09 budget and propose changes.

Tuesday: The House Transportation and Energy Committee is expected to vote on a bill that would ban toll-road companies from registering as railroad companies and obtaining the power of eminent domain unless the registrants have equipment to build a railroad.

Wednesday: The House Finance Committee considers a measure to reinstate the Colorado Earned Income Tax Credit.

Thursday: The Senate Health and Human Services Committee hears a bill by Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, that would create a fund to subsidize trauma care by increasing the fee on driver's licenses and requiring motorists to buy trauma-care insurance policies. Also, the Senate will vote on the budget.

Mixed week forrenewable energy

Gov. Bill Ritter signed a bill into law Wednesday that allows homeowners who generate their own electricity to receive credit from power companies for any electricity they don't use.

HB1160 will benefit consumers with solar cells or wind turbines. If they are on the electric grid, utility companies will be required to compensate them for any power the consumers put into the overall energy supply.

The Senate killed a second measure, however, that would have required municipal utilities and rural electric cooperatives to spend 2 percent of their revenue on conservation and energy- efficiency programs.

HB1107 passed the House by a single vote, and it failed in the Senate State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee on a 2-2 vote.

Legislator to know

Senate Majority Leader Ken Gordon hasn't always focused on reforming election law. He just says reformers -- and controversies - - have a way of finding him.

The Denver Democrat is sponsoring a number of bills this session that would change how Colorado votes. He has introduced bills that would allow online voter registration and allow voters to rank their choice of candidates instead of just picking one.

He also led the fight to require county clerks to let voters use paper ballots in the upcoming election. He wrote the bill in response to Secretary of State Mike Coffman's ruling that the electronic voting machines used by the state were unreliable.

"When people start to think you know something about an area, they bring their ideas about that area to you," Gordon said.

Gordon has first-hand knowledge of what happens when voting systems fail. He ran against Coffman in 2006 and narrowly lost. Experts speculated problems with voting equipment in Denver may have cost him the race.

The paper-ballots bill again put Gordon at odds with Coffman. Gov. Bill Ritter and legislative leaders from both parties supported Gordon's bill but soon yielded to pressure from county clerks.

Despite their disagreements, Gordon won't join the criticism directed at his one-time foe.

"I don't know that the result would have been different (if I were secretary of state)," Gordon said. "I don't think it's my role to be critical of him."