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| 2009 Legislative Session Ends |
The 2009 legislative session has come to a close. There were some great victories and a few stinging defeats. We look at our legislative work in the lens of what we call the "6 E's"--Education, Election Reform, Environment, Equality, Economy, and 'Ealthcare (with a silent H). Below the jump is a quick recap of some of the highlights from this year's legislative session. EducationProbably the biggest news here is that the legislature found a way to fill the expected $300 million budget cut to higher education. Although funding levels are still dismal, it could have been a lot worse for colleges and universities this year. A couple of bills that failed this year include the “Tuition Equity” bill that would have allowed children of undocumented immigrants that have been in the Colorado public school system for years to receive in-state tuition to public universities. It narrowly failed in the Senate. The other bill that New Era was pushing for, referred to as the “Transparency in Higher Education” bill, died in the last days of the session. This bill outlined specific hiring processes for chancellors and university presidents. The universities lobbied heavily against it and it failed to get out of a Senate Committee after narrowly passing in the House.Election ReformThe big victory in election reform legislation this year was the passage of New Era’s Online Voter Registration bill. It was two years in the making, but well worth the wait. We ended up with a great bill that is full of adequate security measures and garnered a yes vote from every legislator in the House and Senate except 4. Big kudos to all of the New Era volunteers and interns who led a great grassroots lobbying campaign to make this common-sense policy a reality!The “National Popular Vote” bill failed this year. It would have required Colorado to allocate its electoral votes in the presidential election to the winner of the nationwide popular vote, regardless of which candidate won in Colorado. EnvironmentThe “Renewable Energy Finance Act” successfully passed this year, making it easier and providing incentives to invest in solar energy in Colorado. New Era fought to include some important language about renters’ access to energy audits, but after heavy lobbying by the Landlord lobby, it wasn’t included in the bill.Also, an oil and gas drilling rules bill approved new rules by state agencies with stricter regulations for oil and gas drilling in Colorado. EqualityThe “Designated Beneficiaries” bill passed with the support of a broad and diverse coalition working on behalf of it. This bill will provide people with an affordable way to designate another person as their beneficiary and allow for basic things like hospital visits. Although this bill is a huge step forward for gay and lesbian couples, it is beneficial for everyone who could not enter into these agreements with another person previously.EconomyAlthough the legislature had huge challenges with the budget this year because of the recession, one budget reform bill in particular will do a lot for our state’s economy in the long run. SB228 is a huge step forward in fixing Colorado’s broken fiscal system and strengthening the state’s ability to withstand and recover from recessions.A ban on the death penalty in Colorado narrowly lost this year by one vote. We put this one under the "economy" E because it would have proved to save the state an enormous amount of money. The money saved would have been invested in a program specifically set up to solve cold cases--crimes that have never been solved. 'EalthcareA bill that would have set up a government authority to take initial steps toward a government-run, universal health care system failed this year. With the stars aligning on the federal level, New Era is looking at federal heatlh care reform in the coming months and will be launching a broad educational and advocacy campaign. |