Colorado
One of the most contentious bills of the legislative session ”” a proposal to settle a decades-long dispute between rafters and landowners ”” sank in a conference committee Tuesday. The six-lawmaker panel deadlocked when members couldn’t settle on rules regarding how, when or whether river enthusiasts should be able to float through private property.
Thanks to the hard work of a transpartisan coalition of groups and activists - including Citizens in Charge, our partner organization - the quest of some state senators to even further reduce Coloradans’ petition rights has been stopped. Senate Concurrent Resolution 003, which would have imposed a supermajority requirement on citizen-initiated constitutional amendments but not on amendments from the legislature, died quietly in the House Tuesday, unable to be taken up before the session end
Colorado shoppers are much less likely to find beer, wine and liquor on supermarket shelves after a House committee on Wednesday killed a bill to expand alcohol sales and the prospects dimmed for two similarly aimed ballot initiatives. It was the third time in as many years that a coalition of convenience stores, supermarkets and consumer advocates has been thwarted in the legislature.
More than 80 people participated in a town hall meeting Wednesday to learn about a proposal to change Colorado Springs’ system of government to a strong-mayor form. “This governance system is not anything new or radical,” said Mary Ellen McNally, a co-chair of Citizens for Accountable Leadership, which is proposing a November ballot initiative. “In fact, it is very similar to the structure … in our U.S. Constitution.”
Sen. Abel Tapia’s proposal that seeks to make it more difficult for citizens to run ballot initiatives that would change the Colorado Constitution was harshly criticized during testimony, but it narrowly passed a Senate committee on Wednesday. Tapia, D-Pueblo, said Senate Concurrent Resolution 3 aims to keep reasonable the amount of issues that confront voters on the statewide ballot.
Shortly after the lunch break and without a TV crew in sight, the [Colorado] Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee first passed a proposal that would largely gut the ability of ordinary citizens to propose amendments to the state constitution.
Bored to tears by any mention of petition rights? If you’ve ever supported a grassroots issue campaign, you may want to take a second look—and do so quickly—after a pair of little watched Colorado Senate votes that took place on Wednesday. Shortly after the lunch break and without a TV crew in sight, the Senate State, Veterans & Military Affairs Committee first passed a proposal that would largely gut the ability of ordinary citizens to propose amendments to the state constitution.
Opponents of three ballot measures want state officials to require anti-tax advocate Douglas Bruce to provide information about who financed a petition drive to get the measures on the November ballot. Bruce, of Colorado Springs, did not appear at a campaign finance hearing in Denver before an administrative law judge. Bruce told The Associated Press on Saturday he didn’t appear because he wasn’t subpoenaed.
Colorado State Senator Abel Tapia currently has a proposal to change the way in which the Colorado State Constitution is amended. One of the changes would be to double the number of signatures required for citizens to put a constitutional amendment change on the ballot for a vote:
State lawmakers may once again ask voters to make it harder to get constitutional amendments on the ballot, an idea Coloradans rejected in 2008, The Denver Post reports. This time, though, there may be no attempt to encourage groups circulating initiative petitions to only change state statutes instead of the constitution. “This is a simplified Ref. O,” said Sen. Abel Tapia, D-Pueblo, referring to Referendum O, which voters shot down 52.5 percent to 47.5 percent in 2008.
The birth records of adoptions finalized in Denver would become available to the adoptees, once they are adults, under a proposed ballot initiative. Adoptees in Search ”” the Colorado Triad Connection will hold a “review and comment” session on Friday with City Council staff and the city attorney’s office about the proposed ballot measure. The group ”” with about 1,000 members, mostly adoptees but also birth parents and adoptive parents ”” hopes to persuade voters to pass an ordinance allowing the adoptees “equal, direct and unrestricted access” to their birth records.
A proposed ballot measure would let utility customers vote on whether to opt out of getting their power from wind, solar or other renewable sources. Supporters of the measure said renewable sources are costly and that customers should have the right to choose less expensive forms of energy. The initiative is one of five filed this week with the Legislative Council, the first step in a series of steps to getting a measure on the ballot for voters to consider in November.
Today, Colorado’s Independence Institute and a group of citizens involved in various initiative petition campaigns in the state filed suit in federal court seeking to overturn a state law that imposes new rules and restrictions on initiative petitions. The law was passed last year by a large, bipartisan majority of legislators.
Citizens in Charge Foundation has been working with those who brought the legal challenge. One plaintiff, Dennis Polhill, is a member of Citizens in Charge’s board of directors.
An unlikely crew of activists and advocates has teamed up to sue Colorado Secretary of State Bernie Bues cher in federal court, arguing that laws enacted last year to curb ballot petition fraud go too far and violate the U.S. Constitution. The laws, passed with overwhelming bipartisan support in the legislature, put tough new requirements on companies that pay people to collect signatures for prospective ballot measures.
Read the story from the Denver Post
A Denver attorney has filed a new ballot initiative that would allow grocery stores to sell full-strength beer, wine and liquor and would permit convenience stores to sell full-strength beer as well. Blake Harrison, who filed a ballot measure in November to let grocery and convenience stores sell wine and full-strength beer, submitted the new proposal Wednesday, two weeks after a House committee killed a bill that would have allowed full-strength beer sales at convenience stores.