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Final Colorado Legislative Seat Decided
As the Rocky Mountain News reports, Democrat Linda Newell has won the last undecided legislative race in Colorado:
Democrat Linda Newell appears to have won the hotly contested Senate District 26 race.
Newell holds a lead of 191 votes over former Republican Rep. Lauri Clapp after provisional ballot-counting concluded late Tuesday, both Democrats and Republicans said today.
Officials are computing whether that margin among some 60,000 total votes is small enough to trigger an automatic recount.
However, Senate Minority Caucus Leader Mike Kopp, R-Littleton, conceded that no recount is likely to reverse a spread that large. Clapp is expected to concede the race in the next day or so, Kopp said...
...Newell, a business consultant and first-time office-seeker, would take over the seat of Republican Sen. Steve Ward, who decided to run for the 6th Congressional District seat rather than seek re-election. She would be the first Democrat to hold the Arapahoe County-centered seat since Martha Ezzard in 1987.
Daschle Chosen to Lead Health Care Efforts
According to Bloomberg News:
President-elect Barack Obama has settled on Tom Daschle as his choice to head the Department of Health and Human Services, a person familiar with the matter said, putting the former South Dakota senator in charge of one of his top domestic priorities.
Obama promised during his campaign to revamp the $2.2 trillion U.S. health-care system, expanding government programs and access to insurance.
Daschle, 60, was involved in health care issues while in the senate and after he lost his bid for re-election in 2004. His book, "Critical: What We Can Do about the Health Care Crisis," calls for an independent agency similar to the Federal Reserve Board to oversee the U.S. health system.
Daschle should play a very high-profile role in the next few years as Obama tries to find a solution to the country's health care crisis.
Colorado House Democrats Unveil Committee Assignments
Democrats in the state House of Representatives today announced committee assignments for the upcoming legislative session. Click below to read the full press release.
CSU Makes Central Administration Cuts
From The Fort Collins Coloradoan:
CSU cut $500,000 in central administrative positions last week to prepare for statewide budget reductions.
Colorado State University Interim President Tony Frank made the announcement Friday in a universitywide memo.
The university will eliminate the position of executive vice president, formerly held by John Lincoln, said CSU spokesman Brad Bohlander. Lincoln retired in late October.
Cuts also include the managing director of climate initiatives and carbon assets and the associate vice president of student affairs, new positions to the university that had been filled.
Both positions were cut for financial reasons and were not related to the performance of the people filling the positions, Bohlander said.
"This administration believes that the goals and objectives can be achieved with combining responsibilities with other positions that already exist," Bohlander said.
The money saved by the cuts will be tucked away into a reserve fund "to help address any statewide budget rescissions or reductions, should those develop," Frank said. If no budget reductions are necessary, the funds will be reinvested as part of the 2010 budget in the university's academic core, according to the memo.
Colorado Capitol Gets Solar Panels
As the Rocky Mountain News reported on Saturday:
Crews are installing solar panels on the roof of the state capitol under an unseasonably warm sun and clear skies in downtown Denver today.
Lt. Gov. Barbara O'Brien described the project as "the continued greening of the Colorado's State Capitol" in a formal announcement.
"Today's installation shows that Colorado state government is leading by example in the creation of Colorado's New Energy Economy," O'Brien said. "This is good news when you consider the current economic climate. We're not only saving the state money, but we're taking another step to protect our planet."
Bella Energy started installing the photo voltaic system on the west facing portion of the roof. More panels will be installed on the south facing roof.
Ritter Budget Calls for Stimulus Plan
As the Rocky Mountain News writes:
Gov. Bill Ritter on Thursday unveiled his proposed $19.2 billion budget, promoted an immediate state stimulus package to take effect this year and laid the groundwork for future economic growth.
But it was the second part of his presentation to the legislature's Joint Budget Committee that revealed the governor's sense of urgency on getting a handle on the economic woes saddling the state and swamping the nation.
"As you know, we are in an extremely tough time nationally and internationally," Ritter said. "To date, Colorado seems to have been somewhat buffered from the worst parts of it. Again, that's just for now. It's important that our economic development efforts be aggressive in this environment."
The governor's stimulus plan featured declaring Nov. 20 Keep Colorado Working Day. The effort, directed by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment, will include seven regional job fairs to connect employers with those seeking work.
Rocky Mountain News Column Highlights CDLE Employees
Tina Griego of the Rocky Mountain News wrote a column on Thursday about Colorado's unemployment insurance offices:
In the week ending Nov. 1, about 35,000 people had filed a claim for state unemployment benefits. Not all will get them, but generally speaking, about 80 percent do. In that same week, 4,059 first-time claims were filed, 88 percent higher than a year ago at the same time, says Michael Rose, chief of statistical programs. The percentage increase over last year's numbers has been rising the past six months, he said, a reflection of what is happening in the economy nationwide.
Much of the increase in calls comes from Congress' emergency extension of jobless benefits, which went into effect in July. The department sent out more than 100,000 letters notifying everyone who might qualify and then doubled its call center staff.
About 40 people field 2,000, sometimes 3,000, calls a day. Many are basic "where's my money?" questions. So many are calling, the line is backed up. Wait times on hold are hitting one, two hours.
"They're frustrated. They're desperate. They're scared," says Leigh Cline, one of the 40 labor and employment specialists answering phones. She's been working at the call center for almost two years.
State Employees Respond to Budget Proposal
State employees and Colorado WINS members today responded to Governor Ritter's budget proposal. Click below to read the full press release.
Vehicle Registration Fee for Road Fixes Considered
As the Rocky Mountain News reports:
A panel looking for more money to fix Colorado's crumbling roads will resurrect the idea of hiking vehicle registration fees for a special fund for bridge repairs.
A state Senate committee in May killed a bill that would have increased annual fees by $25 for a fund to fix 122 structurally deficient bridges. Since then, four more bridges have made the list.
Gov. Bill Ritter's transportation finance panel last year recommended increasing revenue and spending $1.5 billion a year to address road and transit needs. The first $500 million of the proposal was for a "Fix It Now" program of catch-up on road and bridge repairs.
The panel will meet again today to discuss ways to salvage that first part of the program. The vehicle registration increase for bridges, packaged with another hike for road repairs, was killed in the Senate Appropriations Committee...
...Forty-four of the bridges are in the metro area. The biggest project is the replacement of the Interstate 70 viaduct, built in 1964, between Brighton and Colorado boulevards. Replacement is estimated at $800 million.
The panel will revisit other revenue-raising mechanisms as well, many of which would require voter approval.
What do you think about vehicle registration fee increases to pay for road construction?
Ritter Presents to Joint Budget Committee Today
Governor Bill Ritter will present his proposed budget to the legislature's Joint Budget Committee today. Ritter discussed his proposed budget in an editorial in today's Boulder Daily Camera:
This time we find ourselves in more dire economic circumstances than in previous years. A budget should reflect priorities, and it should also reflect realities.
Therefore, I have proposed a 4.98 percent cap on General Fund growth, well below the statutorily allowed 6 percent maximum. We would set aside the remaining 1 percent into an unprecedented $77 million reserve fund.
If these funds are not needed to keep the budget balanced, then they would be used to create a permanent reserve and to invest in bridge repair and replacement and economic-development activities such as job creation, job training and business development.
I have also proposed an additional $5 million stimulus package to invest in our economy, grow new jobs and keep Colorado businesses strong.
A strong transportation system is one vital component to a strong statewide economy. But in the 2009-10 budget, we expect to see a nearly one-third decline in transportation funding, not because transportation is a low priority, but because of a massive reduction in federal funding and because state revenue streams are falling and losing buying power.
Transportation funding in 2009-10 will take a double-hit because of Colorado's complicated transportation funding scheme. Transportation is the last bucket to fill in the budgetary process, and when revenues are down, the bucket stays empty.
We need a stable, predictable and sufficient revenue stream for transportation. A year ago, my Blue Ribbon Transportation Panel described this as a "quiet crisis." The crisis has just gotten louder.