Groff Says Toll, Mileage-Based Fee Study Provisions Will Be Removed From FASTER Bill

Two controversial provisions in a comprehensive transportation funding bill will be removed before the Senate votes on the measure, which is designed to raise more than $200 million per year to repair and improve Colorado's highways and bridges.

Senate president Peter Groff, D-Denver, announced the changes to the measure at a news conference this morning.

"We can run that in a separate bill. This bill is about putting Coloradans back to work," Groff said.

The Senate is due to consider SB 108 this morning.

Republicans announced Tuesday that they are pulling out of efforts to reach a compromise with majority Democrats on the measure.

Senate minority leader Josh Penry, R-Fruita, said the GOP was doing so because of the tolling and mileage-based fee provisions that are being removed from the bill at Groff's direction.

Penry also pointed to the bill's focus on using increased motor vehicle registration fees as the sole means of financing transportation system improvements.

"It's very hard to ask ordinary citizens to open their wallets when the General Assembly won't do the same," Penry said. "At the end of the day, we wanted to fix roads and bridges while this bill is still about tolling and tracking our cars with satellites."

Republicans want to dedicate some of the state's general fund to transportation needs, as well as a portion of revenue raised from severance taxes on energy development companies. Under current law that was enacted during the period of GOP control of the legislative branch of the government no general fund dollars are allocated to transportation.

Instead, the state begins to fund transportation once the general fund's revenues have grown by six percent over the prior fiscal year.

Voters rejected in November 2008 a GOP-supported ballot initiative that would have directed severance taxes to highways.

If given final approval by the Senate, the bill sponsored by Democrat Dan Gibbs of Silverthorne will move to the House.

Carbon Monoxide Bill Heads to Senate

The bill that would require all new homes and existing homes offered for sale after July 1 and all apartments to include carbon monoxide alarms is on the way to the Senate.

HB 1091 was given final approval Tuesday by the House on a 43-21 vote.

Republicans opposed the measure, arguing that it is unfair to impose a mandate on the private sector if no similar requirements apply to state facilities.

Republicans Randy Baumgardner, Don Marostica, B.J. Nikkel, Kevin Priola, Amy Stephens and Glenn Vaad joined the majority Democrats in support of the bill.

Democrat Wes McKinley of Walsh voted "no."

Cell Phone Bill OK'd by House Committee

A bill that would bar drivers from using a cellular phone without a hands-free device was approved by a House committee Tuesday.

HB 1094 would also make text messaging while operating a motor vehicle unlawful and prohibit minors who are operating a vehicle from using a cell phone while doing so.

The House Transportation and Energy Committee heard emotional testimony on the measure before approving it on a bipartisan 9-2 vote.

"I want to honor my daughter and know that I did everything I could do to prevent another person from being hurt or killed," Shelley Forney said. "I want you to think about the numerous lives that will be saved by passing this law today."

Forney, of Fort Collins, is the mother of 9-year old Erica Forney, who was killed in Fort Collins last autumn after a driver talking on a cell phone hit her while she was riding her bicycle in a bike lane.

Other witnesses supporting the bill included representatives of the state's law enforcement community and insurance industry.

Sponsoring Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, urged committee members to keep in mind that there are studies demonstrating that talking on a cell phone while driving, even through a hands-free device, distracts drivers.

"Your individual decision whether to talk and drive doesn't just affect you," Levy said. "It affects every other person on the road with you."

No one testified against the bill, which includes an exceptions for commercial truck drivers, police officers and firefighters and some state Department of Transportation employees.

But Republican Frank McNulty of Highlands Ranch said he thought the measure was an overreaction and that use of a cell phone while driving should not be treated any differently than "tuning the iPod or having a Big Mac."

Aside from McNulty, the only other member of the committee to vote "no" on HB 1094 was Rep. Glenn Vaad, R-Mead. Republicans Randy Baumgardner, Steve King and Marsha Looper voted with the majority.

The bill now moves to the House Appropriations Committee.

FASTER To Hit Senate Floor

The bill that would raise motor vehicle registration fees to pay for improvements and repairs to the state's highways and bridges cleared the Senate Appropriations Committee this morning, opening the door for the whole Senate to consider the controversial proposal.

SB 108, sponsored by Sen. Dan Gibbs, D-Silverthorne, was approved on a 6-4 party-line vote after the committee defeated GOP attempts to eliminate a study of alternative means to finance the state's transportation needs.

That alternative system, called "Vehicle Miles Transferred" or VMT, would, if adopted, require drivers to pay a fee based on the number of miles driven instead of a tax on each gallon of gasoline purchased.

The study would involve asking Coloradans to volunteer to participate. Gibbs said he thinks the study would be unlikely to have any significant impact on the way the state finances its transportation system for at least 20 years.

The measure now heads to the full Senate.

Weissman Again Tries to Get Rid of Death Penalty to Pay For Cold Case Investigations

Rep. Paul Weissman, D-Louisville, is ready to try again to convince his colleagues to shift money from the state's rarely-used death penalty to cold-case investigations.

According to a report in this morning's Gazette (Colorado Springs), Weissman will soon introduce a bill that would eliminate Colorado's death penalty.

The money saved would be made available to the state attorney general's office for investigations of unsolved crimes, including murders.

The Gazette article quoted Senate president Peter Groff as saying he is not sure the bill's prospects are entirely positive.

Report Says Groff Backs Elimination of Personal Property Tax

The Democratic president of the Senate will back a GOP bill aimed at eliminating the state's personal property tax, at least as it affects businesses, according to a Denver Post report.

The article, by the Post's John Ingold, says Sen. Peter Groff, D-Denver, has told members of the Select Committee on Job Creation and Economic Growth that he believes the proposal by freshman Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker, would strengthen Colorado's economy.

The personal property tax requires business owners to pay a tax every year on their physical assets, including such mundane items as desks, computers and printers.

Scheffel's bill, if enacted into law, would phase the tax out over 20 years.

SB 85 is sponsored in the House by Reps. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, and Kevin Priola, R-Brighton.

Despite Partisan Battle, Carbon Monoxide Alarm Bill Gets Preliminary House OK

The House of Representatives gave preliminary approval Monday to a bill that will require builders of new homes and sellers of existing homes, as well as landlords, to install carbon monoxide detectors.

The measure, which was inspired by the recent deaths of a Denver family on the west slope and a college student at the University of Denver, cleared the chamber on a voice vote after several Republican amendments failed.

Among those unsuccessful efforts to change the bill was a proposal to require all state buildings, including college dormitories, to install CO alarms.

But sponsoring Rep. John Soper, D-Thornton, pointed out that most universities already require their installation and that most state nursing home facilities use boilers, which are physically separate from living quarters.

HB 1091 now moves on to a third and final reading in the House before heading over to the Senate.