Some called it "magic," others merely said "acceptable," but before the gavel fell on sine die for Colorado's 2015 General Assembly, a compromise was worked out to reduce standardized testing in Colorado public schools. Gov. John Hickenlooper is expected to sign the bill.
"Tempers flared. Tears were shed. There were very uncomfortable conversations," said Sen. Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood. "There were times when people left the process and walked away and I, for one, thought this whole process was over. I remember walking away and thinking this process was over and we are not going to get across the finish line, but somehow the 35 members of this body have been able to pull together to get across the finish line."
That's not the case for much of what was tackled this legislative session before Wednesday's adjournment.
With a Democratic House and a Republican Senate, partisanship ruled the 120 days lawmakers met in Denver.
Both chambers celebrated the passage of House Bill 1323, which will eliminate standardized tests in grades 10-12, instead relying on ACT Aspire (a pre-ACT exam) and the ACT. The bill maintains ninth-grade Partnership for Assessment of Readiness for College and Careers tests. But other major priorities fell short this session.
The House killed a bill Republicans heralded as a fix to Colorado's housing shortage, an easing of construction defects laws.
The Senate killed a bill Democrats said would continue a program for long-acting reversible contraception that was behind a drop in teen pregnancies and abortions.
Behind the scenes a masterful game of chess was played using legislative rules to get the upper hand.
Nothing illustrated that game more than the reauthorization of the Office of Consumer Counsel.
Tensions ran so high on the issue that on one of the last bills considered in the Senate Wednesday, 11 Democrats refused to vote.
The Office of Consumer Counsel has a small staff that advocates on behalf of ratepayers at hearings before the Public Utilities Commission regarding the electric and telecom industries. It was set to sunset this session.
Senate Republicans in late April introduced a bill to reauthorize it -- without telecommunications oversight.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, said the monopoly that was once the telecom industry is now an open and free market that has outgrown regulation.
"It is a free market-driven industry that having a heavily regulated history is really ready to emerge from that," he said. "When you talk to anyone about telecommunications, you talk about an entrepreneurial spirit that is just exploding with new technology."
Lawmakers deregulated much of the industry in 2014. But some aspects remain, including millions of dollars in a fund to give incentives for service to rural areas and 911 emergency services.
"There was nobody asking to do what they did," Senate Minority Leader Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, said. "Nobody was asking that they carve out a special favor for the telecom industry, except for lobbyists from the industry."
House Democrats amended telecom back into Senate Bill 271, saying the industry still needed oversight despite a massive deregulation of the industry last year. When the bill came back to the Senate, Republicans voted to reject the House amendment and adhere to its position -- a rarely used move that forces the other chamber to take the bill or leave it.
"Generally a motion to adhere is a nuclear option. It's a very aggressive move," Carroll said. "It's rare. I've seen it more this session than I've seen it in the 10 years I've been here."
After exhausting all options, Democrats had an emergency caucus and 11 members crowded the Senate well and requested a "17D," which means they were recorded present but not voting. Carroll said she's never seen that move in her 10 years in the Capitol.
The only Democrat to vote with Republicans was Sen. Leroy Garcia, D-Pueblo, who was perhaps the biggest advocate for keeping the office intact.
"The reality is we're in the 11th hour with the option of next year we could be laying people off," he said. "To throw the entire thing out and say let's start from the beginning, that's a really risky gamble, and neither side has blinked. That's scary."
The House accepted the bill without telecom.
Dueling bills were a theme throughout the session.
The governor will have his choice between two red-light camera bills, one that bans them and one that requires voter approval to use them. But known to vote on the side of local control, Hickenlooper may veto both. Bills giving counties, school districts and special districts more say in the use of tax increment financing through urban renewal authorities came down to the wire, with a compromise bill adopted against the wishes of the Colorado Municipal League. Hickenlooper vetoed a similar bill last year.
There were dueling ways to deal with refunds expected in coming years under the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights; both failed, despite Hickenlooper's backing of one plan.
There were bipartisan successes, too, including a package of workforce development and police reform bills.
And after years of trying, lawmakers came together to make repeat offenses of driving under the influence a felony, something the governor called for in his state of the state address. Then there were rain barrels.
Collecting rain in a barrel for use at a later time is illegal in Colorado, unlike most other states. Sen. Michael Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs, had a bill that would have changed that.
"It was a good bill, and I'm anticipating some good conversation to get more support from the agricultural community," Merrifield said. "They were admittedly opposed to it, and I don't think they really understood or understand that we're not trying to do anything detrimental to them."
Merrifield said he thinks he had the votes for it to pass on the floor, which is why it wasn't brought up for a vote before midnight on Tuesday. (It needed to pass on second reading Tuesday or it died on the calendar.) "The farmers and ranchers on the Senate side were set to filibuster. They were going to read out of the water law book until midnight," Merrifield said.
Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg, R-Sterling, said he's ready to talk about the bill next year even though it didn't come to a vote.
"I'm obviously happy with the demise of that bill, but I do think there is a right way to do it," he said. "We can't just steal someone else's water, and that's what this would do, without replacing it or augmenting it. We'll talk about it over the interim. My goal is to say, look, if cities want to put something like that together, I think that is fantastic."
The House and Senate adjourned at just after 8 p.m.
(c)2015 The Gazette
