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Leaders Tackled Tough Agenda

Monday, May 17 2010

Loveland Reporter Herald
Editorial
May 14th, 2010

Measuring this year’s legislative session by lawmakers’ own checklist, 2010 was a success.

In January, Gov. Bill Ritter, Senate President Brandon Shaffer and House Speaker Terrance Carroll laid out a challenging list of goals for the session, the greatest of which was dealing with a $1.3 billion budget shortfall.

That meant difficult and unpopular decisions, especially the elimination of tax breaks. But credit legislators with getting it done.

And while the ailing budget lingered over the Legislature like this season’s cold weather, lawmakers found time to take up a broad list of issues and needs pressing on the state — including clean energy production, education reform, consumer protection, medical marijuana regulation and changes to the state’s public employees retirement system.

Most of these efforts found bipartisan support, again one of the stated goals.

What is unknown is the result of Gov. Ritter’s promise that “our laser-like focus will be on economic recovery (and) job creation.”

The governor signed bills providing for an income tax credit on payroll costs from newly created jobs, and creating a partnership between businesses and community colleges for training in “New Energy Economy” jobs.

The state’s unemployment rate edged up in March to 7.9 percent, better than the national average but higher than the state’s jobless rate in March 2009. April figures aren’t expected until next week. These numbers should not reflect the efforts of lawmakers this spring, but they represent the economic challenges the state faces.

The Colorado Legislature sweated out budget decisions this year. If promises of job creation and economic recovery fail to materialize, watch for more of the same in 2011.