- State Representative Keith King, House Majority
Leader
When
the 2003 session began, the General Assembly had several
major tasks to accomplish: budget, water issues, auto
and health insurance costs, and funding for K-12
and higher education. Now that the session is over,
we can analyze what I believe was a successful session.
First,
the Legislature balanced its budget without going to
the voters and asking for a tax increase. The economic
downturn our state has endured since 9-11 has been the
worst since the Great Depression. We made significant changes
in funding state government during this session. Are
we free from more budget cuts? No. The Capitol staff
indicates that we still face many difficult decisions
during the next fiscal year. Of immediate concern is
having enough cash to pay the bills. It appears we might
have to sell some state buildings to accomplish that.
Second,
we enacted historic water legislation that will increase
the storage capability and protect all of our state
from future droughts. One bill will allow voters to
decide if the state should spend up to $2 billion dollars
in revenue bonds for water storage projects. This bill
also increased the Colorado Water Resources and Power
Development Authority cap for approving water projects
around the state. Another bill allows the farmers along
the South Platte River Basin to continue pumping water
to irrigate their crops for the next three years.
Third,
we addressed the high costs of auto and health insurance
premiums. I carried HB1188, which set the standard for
the state to go from no fault to a tort system. The
tort system is used by 37 other states and our coverage
of medical no fault was so expensive that many people
were driving without insurance. I believe that you
will see your auto premiums go down significantly as
the plan is fully implemented. We also passed HB1161
to remove certain mandates from health insurance coverage
to provide lower premiums. This bill also created a
pilot allowing small businesses to pool together, increasing
stability and lowering costs. We also allowed discounts
of
up to 25% for healthy consumers to encourage more people
to be insured while they are healthy. Nine years ago
there were 83 health insurance companies in Colorado.
Today there are 24. Hopefully these changes will bring
companies back.
Fourth,
we fully funded K-12 education for inflation plus one
percent plus growth. Amendment 23 appears to be headed
toward insolvency. I am very concerned about how the Legislature
will deal with education funding if the economy does
not turn around. While K-12 education received over
200 million in new funding, higher education took over
100 million in cuts. We will not be able to continue
gutting higher education in the future. Otherwise, the
costs of tuition will go up substantially.
Fifth, Article 5, Section 44 states: “The General
Assembly shall divide the state into as many congressional
districts as there are representatives in Congress.”
The map currently being used is a temporary one, drawn
in secrecy by the Democrat State Party and approved
by a judge, not the General Assembly. The result of
Senate Democrats not drawing a map last year was a
judge's map that created east-west water conflicts, diluted
the minority vote in Denver, and created a 7th District
with 440 different sides ignoring communities of interest.
The new, legislatively approved map better allows for
accurate representation of the state’s interests
in Congress and fulfills our constitutional duty.
Finally, I carried HJR1060 to study the interaction
and long-term effects of Gallagher, TABOR, and Amendment
23. These amendments were passed separately and put
into the constitution by the voters. However, they conflict with each other and prevent the Legislature
from effectively managing the budget. Our state expenditures
are becoming more dependent on state funding as opposed
to local revenue. Our state does not have resources to
fund the infrastructure necessary to allow Colorado's
economy to recover, especially considering the
requirements of Amendment 23.
I
enjoy serving the district and responding to your concerns
received via phone, letters and emails. My email address
is keith@keithking.org. Please contact me with any questions
or thoughts on how we can make state government function
better for all of us.
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