Growth, redistricting, shortfall grip legislature's special session

Growth, redistricting, shortfall grip legislature's special session

October 2, 2001

By Janelle Holden
journal staff writer

Everything from growth, to congressional redistricting, to addressing a budget shortfall is on the table during the Colorado legislature’s second special session of the year.

Gov. Bill Owens gave the state legislature fifteen points to focus on during the session, which began Sept. 20.

They include redrawing congressional districts, freeing up more money for state transportation projects, using money from tobacco settlements to help low-income women in need of breast and cervical cancer treatments, and solving the state’s $267 million revenue shortfall.

Owens is also asking for the creation of a state "smart growth" office, giving legal teeth to city and county growth master plans, restricting annexation of land not immediately adjacent to a city or county boundary, allowing cities and counties to charge fees to help cover the cost of new growth, and an alternative dispute resolution process for city and county planning disputes.

Democrats, hoping to shift Owens’s direction a bit, have proposed legislation to allow school districts to benefit from growth impact fees as well.

Area legislators say the issue of congressional redistricting may end up in the courts, but the chances of a new district being carved out of the Western Slope, which is currently represented by Rep. Scott McInnis (R), are slim.

The 2000 census figures require the state to reconfigure its six congressional districts and add a seventh into the mix.

"It’s obviously a very partisan issue," said Sen. Jim Isgar (D-Hesperus), but it has been made fairly simple for him, since his one concern is keeping the Western Slope whole, and all the major plans under discussion do so.

But if the legislature can’t agree on the issue, it will end up in the hands of the Colorado Supreme Court.

"The court has quite a bit of latitude, (but) since nobody is proposing splitting the West Slope I can’t imagine the court would," Isgar predicted.

Rep. Mark Larson (R-Cortez) said he voted for a bill on Monday that met his four criteria for redistricting. "One is to keep the Western Slope whole, two is to keep the city and county of Denver whole at their request, three is to keep Weld County and Larimer County together as they have requested, and four is to keep El Paso County whole with the military complexes," explained Larson.

Larson said the bill he voted for did split El Paso county, but an amendment to the bill will put all the military complexes into one district.

Larson’s focus, however, is on growth.

"My focus, and what I was discussing with the commissioners in my district and a lot of citizens, is to make sure that any of the growth legislation does not undo any of the good work that the local communities have already done," said Larson, who is also co-sponsoring a bill that would require large developments to stipulate where their water would come from through the next 100 years.

"We need to recognize that above all, water is going to limit growth," said Larson.

Isgar said everyone is hopeful a compromise could be reached on growth but for now, "it’s too early to tell."

Both Isgar and Larson said covering the $267 million revenue shortfall would be difficult.

Larson said so far the House Capital Development Committee has cut state construction projects from $163 million to $140 million.

State construction projects without a contract, like Berndt Hall at Fort Lewis College, are being held up, but nothing already under contract is, explained Isgar.

And although partisan rancor is running high over Congressional redistricting, Isgar said that most legislators attitudes are conciliatory, especially since the Sept. 11 attacks. "People’s attitudes seem pretty good," he said, which may mean more compromise, and less bickering over issues that seemed unresolvable in the past.