An Historic Session

Wednesday marks the opening of the 2009 Colorado Legislative Session. Much has been made of the history that will take place as an African American will lead both the State House and State Senate for the first time in Colorado history.

This is significant for a variety of reasons, but I’m going to let historians and people smarter than I tackle that side of the story.

My take on the session has nothing to do with the color of anyone’s skin. I think the 2009 session will be historic for another reason.

Colorado legislators will have one thing and only one thing to tackle this year, the economy. Colorado’s constitutional budgetary mandates have created major hurdles for any expansion of the state budget, even when times are good. When times are bad, like right now, balancing the state budget, let along trying to do anything new, will be nearly impossible.

I briefly mentioned in my 2009 ill-fated prediction blog that my fiscal conservative friends may like the idea of the legislature’s budgetary hands being tied.

However, I believe they will be disappointed because the combination of infrastructure needs and constitutional budget mandates will give the legislature the public support they need to make major changes to our state’s budget process.

It’s fine to think that legislators will fight over the few dollars that aren’t already constitutionally tied down, and then end up not doing much at all. But if our roads and most importantly, our highway bridges are in as bad of shape as experts say they are, the legislature will have the bi-partisan and public support it will need to tackle TABOR and the other constitutional budget mandates that currently tie their hands.

Necessity is the mother of invention, and I think the necessity of failing infrastructure will invent a movement that may gut TABOR beyond recognition. I know Amendment 59 failed last year, and economic referenda can only be voted on during certain years, but I think we’ll see a major movement to adjust our constitution’s budget mandates.

We know most legislators feel too restricted with the constitution’s conflicting amendments. This session may afford them a golden opportunity to reset the playing field. It will take unprecedented events to unclog this log jam. But, I think we are experiencing those events right now.

I know that I’m out on another limb here, and Governor Ritter showed me the risk in doing that last week with my Senate nominee pick. But, I honestly believe history will be made during the 2009 legislative session and it will have very little to do with the color of anyone’s skin.