Colorado: Gop

It's just 39 steps to his new digs, but Brandon Shaffer carefully wrapped framed family photos in newspaper, placed them in a box and readied them for the short trip down the hall to the Senate president's office.

Twelve years in the Navy will do that to you, the Longmont Democrat said Wednesday as he packed up his office and conferred with the new chief of staff.

"After a while, it becomes a mind-set," Shaffer said, neatly lining up the contents of emptied drawers and bookcases. "You like things done with military efficiency."

The GOP admits it's not certain what to expect from Shaffer, known for being more precise and meticulous than his predecessor and who issued pink slips to some legislative staffers after becoming president.

Scrambling to find enough money to avoid deep cuts to higher education, Senate Democrats on Wednesday expressed support for eliminating tax exemptions on cigarettes and capital gains and raiding money meant to build water projects.

Those ideas came as Democrats met for hours Wednesday in a Capitol hearing room. Just across the hall, Senate Republicans proposed pay cuts and furloughs for state employees and shifting some money from public schools to colleges and universities.

The spending plan recommended by the bipartisan Joint Budget Committee would tap Pinnacol Assurance, a quasi-governmental agency that provides workers' compensation insurance, for $500 million to help balance the budget.

Sleeves rolled up, jacket off, Colorado's newest senator walks before a few dozen Democrats at a recent meet-and-greet and waves off the microphone he's offered with a smile.

The Democrat rattles off a brief stump speech without notes, talking up President Barack Obama's stimulus plan and plans to reform education and health care. Then he switches gears and tells a funny anecdote about running into a fellow member of Congress from Colorado in the laundry room of his Washington apartment building.

The crowd laughs—then peppers Bennet with questions, not all of them friendly, for more than two hours.

State Rep. Spencer Swalm hammered a bill Wednesday that expands health coverage by imposing a fee on hospitals, calling it "irresponsible and immoral" and a "house of cards."

"We're shifting the costs of our health care problems onto our children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren because we're not willing to man up and raise the taxes that are required to do a pay-as-you-go kind of system," Swalm, R-Centennial, said.

Several Democrats looked at one another, stunned. Did a Republican just say the "t" word?

"He didn't just say 'taxes'; he said 'man up and raise taxes,' " said Rep. Jack Pommer, D-Boulder.

Both Pommer and Rep.