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LEGISLATORS SEEK GIFT-LAW CLARIFICATION
Gazette, The (Colorado Springs), Apr 7, 2008 by ED SEALOVER
DENVER - Legislators plan this week to ask the newly formed Independent Ethics Commission whether government workers can accept inheritances or allow their kids to take college scholarships -- and to look to change the law if the answers are "no."
House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, has asked the Office of Legislative Legal Services to draw up a list of the most commonly asked questions about Amendment 41, which bans lobbyists' gifts to state employees and limits gifts from anyone else to state workers to $50.
A court suspended the law because of its openended wording last year, but another court reinstated it this year while a lawsuit to overturn it moves forward.
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Those questions -- which will be reviewed by legislators from both parties before their submittal -- will seek a definition of the term "gifts." Among them: Can state workers get large gifts or inheritances from friends and family members? Can professors who win national awards accept cash prizes that go with them? Can the child of a state employee accept a college scholarship?
"The main reason to do this is to remove as much lingering ambiguity from the law as possible so that public employees and their families can comply with the law," Romanoff said Sunday.
If the commission, which was finalized last month, determines that the law prohibits some of those practices, legislators will work with proponents such as Colorado Common Cause to change the constitution to allow them, Romanoff said. If that has to happen, he predicted a question could be on this November's ballot.
The commission must respond to the advisory opinion request within 20 days.
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Copyright 2008
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