Tag: Daniel Kagan

DENVER — Colorado's 2012 Legislature may not have achieved greatness. It may not have risen above partisan divide to solve complex problems and unify a state. It may not have addressed the state's economic malaise or found a way to reliably fund education for the long term.

Over the course of his first year in office, Colorado Treasurer Walker Stapleton has targeted the state's public-employee pension plan, known as PERA, underlining its billions of dollars in liabilities and arguing that it should be reworked to reduce the state's obligations in part by giving over money to contributors to invest themselves. He brought his case to the state's House Finance Committee on Thursday and predictably ran up against deep Democratic skepticism.

If Gov. John Hickenlooper has anything to say about it--and he will--most of a potential increase in state tax collections this year and in 2012 will go to restore some of the money cut from K-12 budgets in the past few years.

Many Democrats are standing behind concerns raised by former Denver Mayor Wellington Webb last week after Webb said that Republican members of the Colorado Reapportionment Commission were playing it fast and loose with constitutional requirements when redrawing the state legislative boundaries.

As the long bill passed the House on 3rd and final reading Thursday, a JBC-initiated bill that may cause 2,000 low-income children to drop out of a Colorado health care assistance program also won the Legislature's approval.

The bipartisan hug issued around the Legislature after a compromise on the state budget Tuesday was broken Wednesday as House Republicans passed a bill exempting businesses from business personal property taxes.

Republican chair of the House Finance Committee Brian DelGrosso, Loveland, Wednesday moved to advance Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper's budget agenda by pushing an amendment that would have nearly doubled the extra amount government employees are paying into their state pension in order to help shore up the state budget.

House Democrats argued for over an hour against a bill that would allow Coloradans who can legally carry a handgun to also conceal that weapon. Democrats predicted a more dangerous world if the bill were to become law.

State Rep. Daniel Kagan's, D-Denver, bill to allow school-based health clinics to waive co-pays passed the House unanimously today on final reading.

State Rep. Daniel Kagan, D-Denver, let the fleeting pleasant experience wash over him: His bill to make school-based health care more accessible, HB 11-1019, passed out of committee on a unanimous vote.