Mistakes will be made over the course of the 2019 General Assembly: there will be bad bills and gaffes; some good public policy will die a political death; and as always, the most crucial work will come at the very end in a flurry of hurried votes.
But for now, voters’ confidence appears well-placed. Democrats are saying many of the right things as they take complete control of our state government with majorities in the House, the Senate and a new Democratic governor at the helm of it all.
Gov. Jared Polis began his State of the State by metaphorically extending his hand to the Republican senators and representatives crowded into the Colorado House chambers.
“That doesn’t mean that any of us should ever abandon our values,” Polis said. “What it does mean is mere partisanship should never stop us from embracing good ideas and taking bold action for the people of Colorado who elected us to deliver and not to grandstand.”
Polis wasn’t shy about making big promises. He pledged to reduce health care costs, ensure workers can take paid leave to care for their families and to wean the state off of fossil fuels.
Remarkably, Polis said his top priority is to fully fund kindergarten across the state. Full-day kindergarten has eluded lawmakers for years because of the high price tag associated with paying schools to have students in kindergarten for the full day instead of half day — some previous bills have put the cost at close to a quarter of a billion dollars.
“Our state’s strong economic growth means we have the power to do all of this right now without taking resources away from other critical areas of the budget, and as Uncle Ben once said to Spider-Man, ‘with great power comes great responsibility,’ ” Polis said to much laughter and applause. “I know that together we can fulfill this responsibility that many of you have been working on for years.”
Polis and Stan Lee make it sound so simple. Let’s hope the former can deliver on this overdue policy.
The flip-side of an ambitious agenda, however, are legitimate questions about how exactly these big-ticket solutions to burdensome problems will work in a state that has some serious financial quirks.
We support many of the Democrats’ policy goals but the devil is in the details. For example, long has this board supported a public option to create competition in the insurance market to drive down costs. And yet the thankless job of launching a government-run health insurance provider that is financially stable, affordable and effective is a daunting task indeed.
That’s where we turn to Speaker of the House K.C. Becker and Senate President Leroy Garcia. The two were transparent and specific in an hour-long sit-down with the editorial board talking about how they will accomplish their lofty goals.
“There’s a reason that bill hasn’t been introduced yet,” Becker said of a paid family leave proposal that is in the works. Democrats in the Colorado House have already approved paid family leave legislation in prior years, bills that we think had significant problems including imposing an income tax without asking voters for approval. Those bills were killed in the Senate by Republicans. It would seem little stands in the way of such a bill becoming a law this year, and we are encouraged that Becker and Garcia are committed to engaging with stakeholders early.
Some of the new leaders’ ideas are easy to unequivocally support. The two pledged to pass a red-flag law that would empower Colorado judges to order people deemed a danger to themselves or others to temporarily hand over their guns. Garcia wants to expand his successful pilot project in Pueblo dealing with the opioid crisis.
And like their governor, the two prioritized increasing education funding with any additional revenue that is projected to be coming the state’s way.
We wish these three new Colorado leaders success as they do what far too many lawmakers across the nation refuse to do — tackle the hardest problems head on despite the daunting task before them.
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