A panel of lawmakers eyed a sweeping measure today that was aimed at making Colorado government leaner and more efficient, but members put off action, saying they needed more time to find an approach with a lighter touch.

Senate Minority Leader Josh Penry told the State Veterans and Military Affairs Committee that his Senate Bill 29 would create a more sustainable future for Colorado’s budget.

“If we’re serious about the budget we’re going to have to re-orchestrate,” said Penry, a Grand Junction Republican. “This is not a comprehensive approach, but we wanted to get everything from the sublime to the mundane, to drive a conversation.“

However, the committee chair, Boulder Democratic Sen, Rollie Heath,  implied to Penry that the conversation he is seeking would be a debate.

“I think what we’ve got here is somewhat of a difference in philosophy of management,” said Heath.

Heath said that people often point to his own successful practices as a businessman and mistakenly believe that approach is interchangeable with good-government practices.

“It seems to me there’s a huge difference–from the standpoint that governments are counter-cyclical to business,” said Heath. He pointed by way of example to a provision in Penry’s bill calling for a 3 percent cut across the board in the number of state employees.

“There are no signs of being bloated, and we have demands that are unprecedented,” said Heath.

Penry defended his plan as reasonable and necessary, and he said the time is ripe.

“You can always come up with a defense for the status quo,” Penry said.

Saying they were intrigued by a GOP amendment narrowing the bill to a few of its original provisions, some committee Democrats who had expressed hesitance to support the bill in its entirety asked for more time to consider the amendment. The committee voted to postpone final action until April 14.

Among other provisions, Penry’s proposal:

• Eliminates duties from the Department of Local Affairs and directs those duties to the lieutenant governor.

• Sets a two-year statewide hiring freeze that will require the governor to sign off on all new hires.

• Eliminate all bonuses paid to any state employee for two years.

• Reduces the personnel budget of the governor’s office and those of his cabinet heads to 2005-06 fiscal-year levels.

• Reduces by 3 percent the number of all full-time state employees paid in whole or in part out of the state’s operating budget.

• Requires the governor to reduce by 10 percent the pay of all full-time state employees earning $125,000 or more annually, except employees in higher education.