Groff Announces Select Committee to Consider Constitutional Reform

New senate president Peter Groff, D-Denver, announced today that he has formed and appointed a select committee to study ways to reform the state's constitution.

In the announcement, which was made during Groff's opening address to the senate on the first day of the legislative session, Groff said that all reasonable options would be open for discussion at the capitol.

He also said that former U.S. Sen. and current University of Colorado president Hank Brown and former state Sens. Stan Matsunaka, Penfield Tate and Norma Anderson had agreed to serve as senior advisors to the committee.

A University of Denver research panel recently released a set of recommended improvements in the process for citizen-driven constitutional amendments. House speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, is also advancing a plan for a one-time suspension of the constitution's one-subject rule in order to allow referral of an amendment aimed at clarifying conflicting fiscal constraints on the legislature.