2018 legislative session ends May 9

    The remaining days of the 2018 legislative session are producing long hours as lawmakers try to wrap up the last 200 bills remaining on their docket.
    Among the issues waiting for last-minute resolution are transportation, school finance and a fix to the state’s public pension plan.
    Senate Bill 1, the Senate Republicans’ top priority bill, was introduced on the first day of the General Assembly’s 2018 session. Indications are that it will go down to the last day, or very near it.
    The bill has been waiting for its first hearing from the House for more than a month and finally got it last week in the House Transportation and Energy Committee.
    It left the Senate in March with a 35-0 vote and a compromise: $500 million, out of the 2018-19 state surplus of $1.3 billion, for transportation projects; and a ballot measure from the General Assembly to the voters in 2019 to bond for up to $3.5 billion for road and highway work, to be paid for with $250 million in state funds through the next 20 years.
    That was never going to fly with House Democrats, who have argued that bonding that much money could put the state budget in a tight squeeze when the next recession hits, money that could impact how much the state can devote to public education.
    The House Transportation Committee sent the bill on to House Finance with a 7-6 party-line vote and a host of changes: the $250 million per year was reduced to $125 million, with a reserve of $350 million to ward off cuts to education.
    Total bond payments, as amended by the committee, would reach about $205 million per year, leaving a hole between that figure and the $125 million that would be filled by a voter-approved measure. But those payments will cover about $2 billion in road projects, far less than the $3.5 billion the Senate had hoped for. Seventy percent of those dollars would go to state projects, 15 percent to local communities and 15 percent to multimodal projects, such as mass transit.
    The Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce and a coalition of industry and business groups are taking the lead on putting together a ballot measure that will raise the funds for bonding, seeking a penny increase in the state sales tax on a $10 purchase.
    
State pension plan fix heads to final days
    The fix to the state pension plan also is headed to the final days, after the House amended and passed Senate Bill 200 on May 1 with a 38-23 vote.
    As amended by the House, the bill would devote $225 million per year to shore up the state pension plan, which is underfunded by about $32 billion. That $225 million replaces what was in the bill when it left the Senate: a 3 percent increase in contributions by state employees.
    The measure also put the retirement age back to 60 — the Senate version had it at 65 years old — and took out an option for PERA members to jump from the defined benefit plan that most are enrolled in into a defined contribution plan, like a 401(k). PERA already has a defined contribution plan, but once a member chooses one or the other, they can’t change to a different plan. The Senate option would allow a member who has been enrolled in the defined benefit plan to pull out and go to the other plan. Critics pointed out that such a change does nothing to help resolve PERA’s shortfall.
    The House version was rejected May 2 by the Senate, and the measure will head to a conference committee that will iron out the differences between the two versions. However, the bill’s House sponsor, Democratic House Majority Leader K.C. Becker of Boulder, said any compromise would have to include the $225 million contribution as well as leaving out the defined contribution option.
    
Senate Bill 85 runs into trouble
    A bill expanding a rural teacher shortage grant problem has run into trouble in the state Senate just as it was headed to the governor.
    Senate Bill 85 would expand a 2016 program that set up 20 slots for new teachers in rural schools. Under the program, the teacher would get a grant that would cover the last semester of college tuition in exchange for a commitment to teach in a rural school for three years.
    Senate Bill 85 would expand the number of slots to 60, and as originally adopted by the General Assembly, would allow other educators, such as speech language pathologists, nurses and other special services educators, to participate.

The full article is available in our e-Edition. Click here to subscribe.