Going into the 2014 legislative session, Colorado Democrats are still in the majority at the capitol. With an election year looming, party leaders 鈥� including Senate President-elect Morgan Carroll 鈥� say they want to focus on creating more jobs.
No pushes for major public policy changes, or introductions of new , or repeals of gun laws already in place. All of that and more were part of the 2013 session, leading to combative legislative work and an .
鈥淲ell it鈥檚 been a difficult year for all of us,鈥� said Senator Morgan Carroll (D-Aurora). 鈥淏ut really our number one job is moving forward, reaching out to the state.鈥�
(D-Colorado Springs) who was recalled last September over his support for stricter gun laws. Two other Democrats also lost their jobs for supporting the laws, one by recall and the other by .
Another setback the Democrats suffered was the . The statewide education initiative would鈥檝e increased taxes by a billion dollars to pay for reforms in K-12 schools and reduce class sizes. Carroll says given the defeat she doesn鈥檛 think Democrats will propose significant education policy changes.
鈥淲e鈥檝e had a lot of reforms that have happened in this state and most of them did not come with the funding to pay for them,鈥� said Carroll. 鈥淚 think what we鈥檙e hearing fairly consistently is don鈥檛 do any radical changes especially if they don鈥檛 come with the funding to pay for them. Nobody likes unfunded mandates.鈥�
Carroll says her main goal will be improving the state鈥檚 economy and helping citizens deal with the aftermath of devastating floods and wildfires. While Democrats want newly approved gun laws to stay in place, and believe Democrats overreached.
They went beyond what anybody would鈥檝e thought was a rational reform and I鈥檓 against them all and I think they should all be repealed for one reason or another,鈥� said Senator Ted Harvey (R-Highlands Ranch).
Governor John Hickenlooper says he won鈥檛 repeal any of the current gun laws on the books.
is that partisanship takes a backseat, and Colorado becomes a national model on how to work together.
鈥淚f we can do things in a bipartisan way here, I guarantee you they will work out better, we鈥檒l get better outcomes and solutions and then other states will follow us,鈥� said Hickenlooper. 鈥淎nd then who knows, if we can do that in our legislature then Congress will follow.鈥�
Given the tumult of the off session and the looming 2014 elections, all bets are off. Even as both sides say they want to forge a consensus, the Governor admits his bold ambitions could easily be thwarted.
