The 2010 legislative session is now history. There were 649 bills introduced this year. Budget issues dominated the legislature during the Session since legislators were forced to make significant cuts to close the $1.5 billion budget gap needed to maintain a constitutionally required balanced budget. This was a major challenge for the Joint Budget Committee (JBC), legislative leadership and the Governor’s Office since the state’s ability to reduce expenditures is severely constrained by constitutional mandates such as Tabor (forbids tax increases without a vote of the electorate), Amendment #23 (specifies funding increases in education without regard to the state of the economy); and the Gallagher Amendment that limits property tax increases used to fund education. Reductions in Medicaid and education spending are severely limited due to federal mandates and state constitutional requirements. Since these two items account for a major part of the General Fund expenditures, the legislature was forced to take deep cuts in Higher Education, Human Services, and Corrections. The Governor signed HB 1376, the $18.2 billion Long Bill into law on April 28, 2010.
To balance the budget in FY 2009-10 and FY 2010-11, the Democratic controlled General Assembly employed several strategies, including the use of federal ARRA funds that will expire in 2011, the use of cash funds to backfill reductions in the General Fund, as well as the passage of a package of bills eliminating twelve tax credits, worth approximately $325 million in revenue. Elimination of tax credits during the first month of the Session was opposed by the business community and Republican minority, to no avail. This helped set the tone for a contentious and often partisan Session that was fueled by the fact that Governor Ritter announced he would not run for Governor in 2010 and the impending departure of many term limited legislators in leadership positions in both chambers, particularly the House. Of the six JBC members, it is expected that only one or two will remain on the Committee in 2011(Ferrandino and White).
Legislation enacted during the 2010 Session focused on the following key areas: the environment; K-12 education reform; higher education; health care reform; medical marijuana legislation;
There were 46 public safety bills that were tracked for the CPPA. The most significant was the passage of HB10-1284 and SB10-109 dealing with medical marijuana. HB1284 established a regulation and licensing process for persons who wish to run dispensaries. The most significant part of the bill allows cities and counties to prohibit dispensaries in their jurisdictions if they so choose. In addition, there were bills to remove the mandatory 5 day jail sentences for driver’s license violations and take the money to fund mandatory jail for repeat DUI drivers. HB 1352 reduced the penalty on several drug possession charges and applied the savings it to treatment. Several bills came from the Colorado Commission on Juvenile Justice (CCJJ) committee that was established three years ago to address issues in the criminal justice system. The emphasis of these bills dealt with trying to reduce recidivism by providing more resources for treatment of both drug and alcohol offenders. HB 1201 was a bill setting up consent to search rules for law enforcement. It places in statute basic rules about consent to search. Officers are still allowed to conduct stop and frisk searches, or Terry stops, but in consent situations officers are required to notify the person of their right to refuse the search.
The General Assembly adopted legislation (HB 1353) that put a one year moratorium on Interim Committees in 2010. That moratorium will allow the campaign season to start in full earnest in June. The Democrat/Republican/Independent split in the House is 37/27/1, while in the Senate the Democrats hold a 21/14 majority over the Republicans. There are several highly contested House and Senate seats, as well as the open Governor’s seat that has already become a hotly contested race between Republicans Congressman Scott McInnis and Dan Maes who will face off in an August primary election, and Democrat John Hickenlooper, current Mayor of Denver. The Republicans would like to take control of the Governor’s Office and possibly the House, while the Democrats want to maintain control of the Legislative and Executive branches of government.
Although the March 2010 revenue estimate showed that the economy is slowly starting to recover, the state will be forced to impose additional budget cuts in FY 2011-12 and FY 2012-13 due to the fact that one time federal ARRA funds were used to offset General Fund shortfalls the past two fiscal years. There is a collaborative group composed of civic and business leaders working on recommendations to make structural changes to the state’s fiscal process. Recommendations for constitutional changes would not go to the voters until the 2011 election.
In addition to the budget issues faced by all levels of government, a group of individuals lead by Douglas Bruce has placed three initiatives on the November ballot. If voters pass these initiatives, government, as we know it, will be severely hampered. The state and cities and counties will experience huge drops in revenue based on these three ballot proposals. This will have a negative fiscal impact on all government services including law enforcement!!
Currently elected officials and the business community are collaborating to oppose the passage of the three ballot initiatives in order to save schools, jobs and major public works projects. Amendments #60, #61, and #101, if approved by the voters, would reduce taxes and severely curtail the states, cities, and counties ability use debt financing. The passage of one or all of these amendments would have a disastrous effect on the state budget as well as local budgets. These initiatives are being advocated by Douglas Bruce who was the author of the TABOR amendment approved by the voters in 1992.
- Amendment # 60 would overturn the Supreme Court decision that allowed freezing mil levies for public education. It would also require periodic elections to renew property tax revenue overrides. The Supreme Court decision was a tool used by the JBC to balance the budget the past two fiscal years.
- Amendment # 61 would prohibit the state from utilizing lease purchase agreements and Certificates of Participation to circumvent the debt limit requirements of TABOR. This effectively would eliminate construction projects for state agencies.
- Proposition # 101 would reduce vehicle registration fees to $10 per vehicle, reduce ownership taxes on vehicles to minimal amounts, lower the income tax rate to 4.5% and then to 3.5% over ten years, and eliminate communication taxes. State revenue would decrease by about $1.5 billion, local revenues by half that amount.
Please speak with your command staff and municipal and county leaders about these initiatives. More information can be found at www.donthurtcolorado.com.
This legislative session was dominated by budget issues. These issues will continue in 2011 as the country and the state is still in a recession. As law enforcement officers your task will be to work with your cities to solve the problems associated with shrinking budgets. Doing more with less is becoming the norm as cities struggle to cope with their budgets.
CURRENT BILLS
