Colorado: Amy Stephens

After a rigorous debate Friday, the School Finance Transparency Act passed a second reading on the Senate floor with strong bipartisan support.

Amendments and delays had previously bogged down Senate Bill 57, which would require school districts to put their check registers online. Though basic budget information is already public, proponents of the bill testified during an initial committee hearing last month that the information is weighty and often very confusing. Sen. Ted Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch, and Rep. Amy Stephens, R-Monument, are sponsoring the bill.

“If you can’t defend it, don’t spend it,” Harvey said, quoting a common motto of transparency proponents.

The House voted 52-12 for a bill that would make Sept. 11 an optional holiday.

Rep. Ed Casso, D-Thornton, ran the bill after realizing the overwhelming emotions that people feel about the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, D.C., on Sept. 11, 2001. The measure would allow state employees to take off Sept. 11 if they work on one of the other state holidays that falls during the week.

Seven Democrats - Debbie Benefield, Claire Levy, Beth McCann, Jack Pommer, Joe Rice, Jim Riesberg and Sue Schafer - and five Republicans - Laura Bradford, Larry Liston, Ellen Roberts, Ken Summers and Spencer Swalm - voted against the bill.

In case you missed it, the Rothenberg Political Report recently noted a curious trend in U.S. Senate contests over the past several election cycles: “Only six of the 39 Senators who have been elected over the past four cycles were sitting statewide officials. Meanwhile, over the same time period, seven sitting statewide officials lost bids for Senate.

“Former statewide officials make up only nine of the 39 new Senators since 2002, while three former statewide officeholders lost general election bids over the same time period.”

This revelation emerged at the same time sources inside the Colorado Republican Party told the Colorado Statesman it is rebuilding for future election cycles with an eye on its local talent: “Colorado Republican Chair Dick Wadhams agreed, saying that both parties have long used the state Legislature and statewide office as the breeding ground for politicians who eventually make their way to higher office.

Democrats in a House committee rejected expansion of a carbon-monoxide detector bill Tuesday that would have required the devices in dorm rooms at public colleges, saying the additional cost could kill the measure.

House Bill 1091 by Democratic Reps. John Soper of Thornton and Lois Court of Denver would require detectors be installed in all new homes and apartments, as well as homes or apartments sold or rented to new tenants. The measure follows six high-profile carbon monoxide deaths over the past two months.

Republicans on the House Business Affairs and Labor Committee argued that if the state mandates the devices in private dwellings, it should lead the way and put them in public buildings where people sleep.