By Gene Davis, DENVER DAILY NEWS
Gov. Bill Ritter yesterday defended the divisive bills that lawmakers passed this year and trumped the Legislature’s efforts as a successful capstone to his four years in office.
Yesterday’s press conference with reporters followed the final day of the 2010 120-day legislative session. Ritter again threw his support behind a controversial series of bills that eliminated or suspended a series of tax credits and exemptions for businesses in Colorado. He also trumped a bill that would reform teacher tenure in Colorado — which split the Democratic caucus and raised the ire of many in the education sector — as a cutting-edge way to improve Colorado’s workforce.
“We accomplished everything that we set out to accomplish,” said Ritter.
Meanwhile, Republicans again blasted Ritter for essentially raising taxes on everything from candy and soda to select online purchases. In a press release sent out last week, House Republicans called the 2010 legislative session a “taxing” experience.
“Raising taxes on small businesses and consumers is never good economic policy,” said a statement from House Republican Leader Mike May. “But it is preposterous for Democrats to think that Coloradans can afford to pay more in taxes while jobs are being lost and our economy is struggling. I have to ask myself if they are actually trying to run businesses and jobs out of Colorado.”
But Ritter pointed out that the business community still wasn’t hit as hard as K-12 education, which lost $260 million in funding this legislative session. Additionally, Colorado’s elderly community lost $90 million under a bill that would suspend the property tax exemption some qualifying seniors get. Ritter this year was charged with closing a $1.3 billion budget gap for next year’s state budget.
“Overall we spread the difficult decisions across people so that there wasn’t any great impact to any sort of one community,” Ritter said.
Despite the heated partisan fight over eliminating the more than $100 million in tax credits and exemptions, Ritter pointed out the bipartisan successes lawmakers achieved during the legislative session. Significant bills to reform the state’s Public Employees Retirement Association and teacher tenure system gathered both Republican and Democrat support.
Ritter contributed part of the bipartisan success to the fact that he and some other key lawmakers were not up for election.
“I wasn’t running for reelection and I was free of election year politics,” he said.
Yesterday’s press conference likely marked the final legislative wrap-up session Ritter will ever give. Ritter said that some of the session’s greatest accomplishments — teacher tenure reform, bills that increase the state’s renewable energy standard to 30 percent by 2020 and replace old coal-fired power plants with cleaner-burning natural gas — were possible because of the efforts of the three previous legislative sessions in which he was governor.
When asked by the Denver Daily News whether he had any second thoughts about not running for reelection, Ritter said his “decision was a good decision and the right decision.”
“You bet there are things left undone, there will always be things left undone whenever you leave office, that’s the nature of government,” he said. “But we’re very proud of the things we’ve been able to do.”

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
DENVER — A committee of journalists that meets secretly to advise top legislative leaders on which journalists should be allowed floor access at Colorado’s Capitol has favorably recommended The Colorado Independent.
The Independent, an online news project of the left-leaning Washington, D.C.-based Center for Independent Media, is believed to be the first electronic reporting site not tied to a print publication to win the association’s recommendation. Others that had close ties to Denver-based reporters and editors were certified.
However, the CCPA didn’t encourage full membership for The Independent. Instead, it recommended a “provisional credential” lasting one year. Such provisional credentials were never addressed in the association’s rules or bylaws, nor are they discussed on the General Assembly’s Web site.
It wasn’t immediately known whether Senate President Brandon Shaffer or House Speaker Terrance Carroll had granted the credentials. In virtually all cases, however, current and former legislative leaders have rubber-stamped the CCPA’s work since the association’s creation in 2007.

Closed-door meetings
The Independent’s editor, John Tomasic, confirmed in an e-mail to State Bill Colorado that the committee made its decision behind closed doors and that The Independent’s editors and reporters weren’t in attendance.
Tomasic said the online news organization thanks the committee for its confidence.
“We see it as recognition of the hard work we have put in over the last three years covering Colorado policy and politics,” Tomasic told State Bill. “We see it as an acknowledgment of our I hope notable redoubled dedication to deliver information to readers necessary to improve public life and to fill the news hole opened up in Capitol coverage by the changing media landscape. We see the capitol credential as part of a new productive phase for the site. We look forward to making good on the committee’s confidence.”
Tomasic called the provisional credential “a selling point, I think” to anyone who might be concerned about giving new media privileges enjoyed for decades by old media: print, TV, radio.
Asked whether the provisional credential was redundant, since any press credential can be pulled at any time by the House speaker or the Senate president, Tomasic said, “Probably. But for (the above) reason and others, I have no complaints.”
The CCPA has recommended credentials for two sites — INDenverTimes and Rocky Mountain Independent — that were created by former reporters of the defunct Rocky Mountain News. Another electronic site that garnered credentials, PolitickerCO.com, was owned by the company that publishes The New York Observer. A fourth side, Education News Colorado, won full credentials: Its staff includes former Denver Post journalist Todd Engdahl.
Proving the dynamism of today’s media market, the Rocky Mountain Independent and PolitickerCO.com are now shuttered. And INDenverTimes no longer pursues on-site coverage of the Capitol.

A turning point?
The association’s decision in The Colorado Independent’s case is a shift from 2008.
Back then, the CCPA’s five-member “standing committee” recommended against approval for the organization, then called Colorado Confidential.
At the time, Joe Hanel, one of the committee members and a reporter for The Durango Herald, cited three foundations who donated money to Colorado Confidential’s nonprofit umbrella organization – the Washington-based Center for Independent Media – as the deciding factors, Colorado Confidential reported then. Those organizations cited were the Gill Foundation, the Service Employees International Union and the Open Society Institute. The foundations often provide funding to progressive causes and candidates.
Neither Hanel, who still sits on the CCPA standing committee, nor the association itself responded to questions from State Bill Colorado about its decision this year to recommend a provisional credential for the The Colorado Independent.
State Bill Colorado, which is not credentialed and did not apply for Capitol credentials this year, has previously reported that the CCPA’s secret meetings are unusual for state-sanctioned bodies that advise top government leaders. Besides Hanel, the current members of the standing committee are Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; Bente Birkeland of Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a consortium of public radio stations; Adam Schrager of KUSA-TV; and Eli Stokols of both KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV.
The standing committee, unlike similar organizations operating at the U.S. Congress, is self-perpetuating and doesn’t stand for elections.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

Denver attorney Rob Corry has released a letter to Sen. Chris Romer that goes through Romer’s proposed medical-marijuana measure line by line, ripping assorted passages as “insane” or “evil” and recommending a slew of changes and excisions, Westword reports.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
A panel of journalists that plays a crucial role in deciding which reporters get face-to-face access to legislators on the floor of the state Capitol is again gearing up for business — and causing controversy.
The standing committee of the Colorado Capitol Press Association has met once so far this legislative cycle, committee member Joe Hanel of The Durango Herald confirmed Tuesday. And as in previous years, the CCPA’s standing committee convened behind closed doors.
The CCPA’s preference for secret meetings isn’t just rare for journalistic organizations, which normally press for governmental transparency. It’s the exception for official bodies advising public figures in Colorado’s executive and legislative branches, a recent State Bill investigation determined.
Hanel disclosed that at its first meeting for the 2010 session, which begins Jan. 13, the standing committee approved credentials for reporters at newspapers including the Colorado Springs Gazette, the Colorado Statesman and The Pueblo Chieftain.
Asked why the panel chooses to meet privately, Hanel turned and walked away without saying a word.
The standing committee — dominated by traditional journalists including newspaper, TV and radio reporters, — has been criticized by other journalists, including the Colorado Pro Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, for essentially preventing face-to-face floor coverage by so-called “new media” organizations, including State Bill Colorado.
The CCPA has said that it makes only recommendations. Nevertheless, its decisions are almost always accepted by the legislature’s highest leadership.
The five-member CCPA was created in late 2007 by then-Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and then-House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to issue credentials to journalists with an eye toward ensuring that journalists weren’t lobbying or otherwise inappropriately influencing public policy. Current House Speaker Terrance Carroll and Senate President Brandon Shaffer, both Democrats, have so far left the credentialing panel in place.
Besides Hanel, the current members of the standing committee are Charles Ashby of the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel; Bente Birkeland of Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a consortium of public radio stations; Adam Schrager of KUSA-TV; and Eli Stokols of both KDVR-TV and KWGN-TV.
The standing committee, unlike similar organizations operating at the U.S. Congress, is self-appointing and doesn’t stand for elections.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

Sens. Brandon Shaffer and John Morse write in today’s Denver Post, “One of us is sponsoring the Health Care Jobs for Colorado bill, which will draw primary care physicians and nurses to the areas that need them the most: rural and underserved areas. … Sen. Bruce Whitehead from Hesperus has been working very hard on another piece of legislation for this session which will establish Job Retraining Accounts.”

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

How to deal with looming revenue shortfalls — $600 million for the budget year that’s halfway over and $1.5 billion for the budget year that starts July 1 –without eviscerating government services will dominate the session that starts Jan. 13 and overshadow many other efforts, Boulder-area legislators told the Boulder Daily Camera.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

Gov. Bill Ritter is proposing legislation aimed at protecting the value of gift cards and enabling consumers to redeem whatever money is left on them. “If you buy a $25 gift card today, it should still be a $25 gift card a year or two from now,” Ritter said in a statement, according to The Denver Post.

20091221_GiftCards

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora, talks with blogger David Thielen about increasing citizen participation at the state Capitol. Thielen writes at ColoradoPols that the number of lobbyists working bills “was a real eye-opener to (Carroll) when she first started in the legislature. She at first was wondering who are all these people and why are they affecting my legislation. Morgan sees this problem not as one of the individual lobbyists, but a system where the legislators are term limited, but the lobbyists are not.”
Carroll, an attorney, headed a special interim commission this summer on Pinnacol Assurance, the quasi-governmental provider of workers compensation insurance.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

By Don Knox, STATE BILL COLORADO
Credentialed lobbyists who pay for and pass a background check would be allowed to bypass the security magnetometers at Colorado’s state Capitol under a bill being proposed by Rep. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs.
“Security is important, nobody denies that, but … it has been my observation that people sometimes are stacked up literally 100 deep to go through security,” Liston said, adding that “children and older people” sometimes are forced to wait outside in cold weather.
Liston is pushing to have the bill heard early in the session so that it could go into effect sometime during the 2010 General Assembly, which begins Jan. 13.
The Colorado State Patrol is empathetic to the bill, Liston added. “I would hope they would be for this. It’s going to relieve their burden, quite frankly.”
Attempts by State Bill Colorado to reach a CSP spokesman Friday were unsuccessful.
Capitol Complex security has been a top issue for the executive and legislative branches since July 2007, when a capitol trooper shot and killed a man who verbally threatened Gov. Bill Ritter and state troopers while waving a gun.
But in each of the last two sessions, some legislators on both sides of the political aisle —notably House Majority Leader Paul Weissman, a Democrat — have backed measures calling for the magnetometers to be removed in favor of roaming plain-clothed officers trained to detect security problems.
Liston’s proposal is aimed at the 600 professional lobbyists who on any given day during the legislative session crowd capitol hallways and lobbies. They also crowd the magnetometers, he contends.
“Some of the lobbyists have been working there for literally 20 years,” said Liston, a financial consultant when the General Assembly isn’t meeting. “They’re well-known to the State Patrol … and sometimes they’re going in and out of the capitol half a dozen times or more a day. Every time they go out they have to be screened.”
Legislators had to file their first three bill ideas by Dec. 1, which is when Liston floated the security measure. He noted that the language for the bill itself remains in flux. “I’m waiting to find out from another party if this isn’t going to be merged or changed,” he said.
Liston suggested that he’s heard from opposition in some quarters, but he didn’t say from where. In an early draft, the Secretary of State’s office would have issued identification badges to the lobbyists, but that’s no longer the case, Liston said. The office already regulates lobbying activities.
Liston hopes legislators and government officials can avoid playing politics with a measure that would make things run more smoothly during the 2010 session.
“I think the issue is government efficiency. To me that’s what it boils down to,” he said.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >

STATE BILL COLORADO
Denver television reporter Eli Stokols has been picked to serve on the standing committee of the Colorado Capitol Press Association, a state-sanctioned panel of journalists that formally recommends who gets access to legislators on the floors of the Colorado House and Senate.
Stokols, who reports for KDVR-TV Fox 31 and KWGN-TV “The Deuce,” is a 2002 master’s journalism graduate from Columbia University in New York City. He spent that year reporting on the attacks of 9/11 and their aftermath. His undergraduate degree is from the University of California at Berkeley, where he pitched for the Cal baseball team.
Stokols fills a vacancy left by freelance journalist K.C. Mason, who retired. Stokols couldn’t immediately be reached by State Bill Colorado for comment.
The five-member CCPA was created in late 2007 by then-Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald and then-House Speaker Andrew Romanoff to issue credentials to journalists with an eye toward ensuring that journalists weren’t lobbying or otherwise inappropriately influencing public policy.
But the standing committee, which was self-appointed and does not stand for elections as does a similar organization that operates at the U.S. Congress, drew ire from new and veteran journalists working in the electronic media. They accuse it of preserving the traditional media’s monopoly by shutting out new and nontraditional media formats. In March 2008, then-Senate President Peter Groff overturned a decision by the committee to bar Denver’s homeless newspaper, The Denver Voice, from the Senate floor.
Curtis Hubbard, political editor of The Denver Post, has said his organization refuses to ask for a position on the standing committee because it doesn’t want journalists to make judgments about access for other journalists. The board of the Colorado chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists has also formally questioned the need for such a credentialing organization.
With Stokols’ selection, the committee remains dominated by traditional media — print, TV and radio.
The other committee members are Charles Ashby, a freelance journalist who on Monday joins the Grand Junction Daily Sentinel as Capitol correspondent; Bente Birkeland of Rocky Mountain Community Radio, a consortium of public radio stations; Joe Hanel of The Durango Herald; and Adam Schrager of KUSA-TV 9News.
In 2009, State Bill Colorado, a legislative news service owned by Circuit Media LLC, was not recommended for press credentials by the committee, which declined to say why. But a traditional print publication produced by Circuit Media, Law Week Colorado, was recommended for credentials and was, in fact, credentialed by current House Speaker Terrance Carroll.
Carroll and current Senate President Brandon Shaffer, both Democrats, have so far left the credentialing panel in place for the 2010 General Assembly.

Stay ahead by signing up for State Bill E-News! >