Sen. Spence in the Colorado Senate Chamber

The 66th General Assembly will take up at 10:00 am on Wednesday, January 10, 2007. By law, we will work in session for 120 days, adjourning sine die on May 9.

The Democrats handed us a setback on Nov. 7, no doubt about it. Yet, contrary to what some would believe, it was no knockout. Far from it.

My fourteen Senate Republican colleagues and I are energized and ready to safeguard the interests of Colorado’s taxpayers and to fight Democrat attempts to grow government now that they control both the executive and legislative branches. I also stand ready to work with the more moderate elements within the new adminstration, as well as among legislative Democrats in an effort to contain the other party’s more radical, pro-regulation, anti-business members.

The failure of our party to hold onto the governor’s office came as a real blow. We Republicans in the General Assembly have relied on Gov. Owens for the past two legislative sessions to veto or otherwise head off some of the worst, most reckless ideas that the majority Democrats could conjure up.

However, there’s hope. I am proud to have developed a reputation, first in the Colorado House and now in the Senate, as a lawmaker who can call the Democrats to account for their really radical ideas while working with them to find common ground on issues where we agree. I am especially eager to work with those Democrats who see the folly in some of their own party’s pending legislative agenda – and who understand the need to modify it or scuttle it outright.

Here are some areas in which I expect a face-off during the 2007 session:

• Key special interests within the Democratic Party will push lawmakers once again to roll back some of the tremendous strides we have made in recent years in improving our public schools. I expect Democrat attempts to water down our state’s groundbreaking school-accountability measures; to undercut charter school funding and to derail innovations like online education that give parents more choices.
• Democrats, long beholden to the trial lawyers and labor unions will try to pass new and wide-ranging regulations on business. That could mean threatening the statutory caps that now serve as a check on ridiculously high jury awards in lawsuits, raising the cost of insurance and of doing business. It also could mean Democrat legislation to increase the mandates on workers compensation insurance, raising premiums for the employers who create jobs.
• Too many Democrats never seem content to invest our tax revenue during good times in basic infrastructure like transportation and education. That’s what the taxpaying public expected of us when it approved Ref C last year. Yet, Democrats are too ready to spend the Ref C dividend on ever more social programs and entitlements.

Rest assured, my GOP colleagues and I will do our best to head off such ideas. We may be fewer in number than before the election, but we Republicans will be a feisty bunch.