Because of recent spikes in unemployment the state had to borrow money from the federal government to keep the unemployment fund solvent. The state then began issuing bonds to maintain the fund and pay back the federal government. To cover the added cost, employers have since been required to pay a surcharge in addition to what they normally would pay.

House Bill S-1002 by Reps. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, and Daniel Pabon, D-Denver, and Sen. Cheri Jahn, D-Wheat Ridge, provides for a reduction in the amount paid per employee by an employer into the fund by authorizing an employer’s “experience rating”—a rating determined by how long an employer has paid into the fund and how many employees drawn down the fund—to apply to the surcharge portion just as it does now to the base amount.

Liston said the ability to apply the rating across the board will give employers a boost to their bottom lines.

“This bill will immediately take the state of the Unemployment Insurance Trust Fund from red to black,” said Liston. “Passing this bill means that in the next five years our state’s job creators will save tens of millions of dollars.”

Jahn said the adjustment will afford employers a measure of fiscal security.

“This bill will have a direct benefit to employers by lowering their (unemployment insurance) premiums and giving them budgetary stability,” said Jahn.

HB S-1002 is one of three bills that were approved during the special session called by Democratic Gov. John Hickenlooper following the conclusion of the regular 2012 legislative session last week.

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The two bills’ failure meant that as of Tuesday evening, eight of 12 bills introduced in the special session had been killed.

Both House Bill S-1007, sponsored by Rep. Claire Levy, D-Boulder, and Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango, and Senate Bill S-003, sponsored by Sen. Bob Bacon, D-Fort Collins, and Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, died in the House State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee. This week’s special session was convened by Gov. John Hickenlooper to address the issue among others that were left unresolved after the conclusion of the regular 2012 General Assembly last week.

Bacon said Colorado would have attracted a new breed of businesses had the designation been approved.

“Benefit corporations are a new, innovative type of company that will not only foster job creation but also positively impact our communities,” said Bacon. “There are plenty of entrepreneurs out there looking to start this kind of socially conscience company and plenty of investors looking to support them.”

Massey attributed his bill’s demise to political wrangling.

“This bill’s evolution, unfortunately, carried it beyond the scope of policy and turned it into a political wedge,” he said.  “It’s regrettable to see this bill die, but I remain hopeful this bill will return next year.”

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Without that technical motion, the measure could be resurrected since the only motion that failed was to send it to the House Finance Committee.  Yet, with just three days allotted for the special session,  it is unlikely the bill could make it all the way through the process in time .

Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, who had asked fellow lawmakers not to deliver the final, procedural blow to House Bill S-1006, said the lack of a motion to postpone the bill indefinitely was only symbolic and a courtesy to minority Democrats who supported the bill throughout the measure’s high profile journey in the last days of the regular session.

“There was no need to heap that extra indignity upon it,” Court said.

The committee chair, Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Littleton, said he was hoping to calm an “emotionally charged” hearing.

“I made the decision as a courtesy to the people in the room,” said Kerr. “I wanted people … to have the chance to catch up and reflect on the decision we made.”

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Ferrandino, at a media event, said it’s the speaker’s choice to kill this bill or allow it to move forward, in light of rank-and-file Republican support for the proposal asserting that GOP leadership is what stands in the way of civil unions policy.

“It’s not a political issue to me and families across the state, it’s about getting things done,” said Ferrandino. ” It’s not the policy that’s galvanizing people it’s the process and what happened Tuesday night.”

Yet McNulty, in a prepared release said getting things done has been  thwarted by political concerns.

“Reviewing Gov. Hickenlooper’s release, it’s clear that he cluttered his call for a special session with bills that could have passed yesterday with bipartisan support.  The governor has every right to call a special session, but let’s be clear—if the goal of this session is to pass bills that had broad, bipartisan support, we could have done that yesterday,” said McNulty. “It’s not lost on us that Gov. Hickenlooper stood silent last year as Senate Democrats killed numerous important bills as time ran out on the 2011 session.”

In his order Hickenlooper stated that the scope of the session addresses proposals deemed to have bipartisan support and necessary to the functioning of government.

“Much of this legislation had significant bipartisan support and addressed subject matter crucial to the people of Colorado and the effective, efficient operation of state government,” wrote Hickenlooper “The ramifications of the General Assembly’s inability to take up the business of its people will negatively impact the State of Colorado and hamper its ability to serve its people. These extraordinary circumstances require a special session of the General Assembly.”

The special session will begin Monday at a cost  of $23,500 per day.

The measures to be considered are as follows:

• Funding of Colorado Water Conservation Board projects.
• Penalties for persons who drive while under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
• Authorization of civil unions.
• Administration of the unemployment insurance program to stabilize unemployment insurance rates, facilitating the issuance of unemployment revenue bonds and accelerating the creation of the Division of Unemployment Insurance in the Department of Labor and Employment.
• Creating “benefit corporations” in Colorado.
• Registering Special Mobile Machinery Fleets.
• Submitting to the registered electors of the State of Colorado an amendment to the Colorado Constitution repealing provisions deemed obsolete.

No, just kidding!  It was originally an outgrowth of the philosophy that the king can do no wrong. Kings have been replaced by mere mortals in positions of power, but the doctrine survives because government needs an excuse not to be overly generous with other people’s money when there are so many programs it wants to fund.  Legal settlements play havoc with a budget.

It is certainly tempting to be generous when one is listening to compelling testimony from the victims of the Lower North Fork Fire in late March. Three people dead, two dozen homes destroyed and 4,000 acres burned all because of what appears to have been gross negligence by the Colorado state forest service after setting a “controlled” burn.

“Insurance can’t replace dreams, memories, lives,” Kristen Moeller told the House Judiciary Committee last week after showing members pictures on her tablet computer of what she lost.  “The state can get away with killing people and not being penalized.”

Scott Appel reminded the Senate State Affairs Committee Monday that the state foresters had broken their own rules by not monitoring the fire on Sunday, March 25; running out of water Monday when it blew up and being late to issue evacuation orders.  He showed members a picture of his wife Ann, who died in the fire.  “Best looking boss I ever had,” he said before choking up.  “If citizens took the same action, there would be an immediate and exhaustive investigation into the fire,” he said.  “The responsible parties would be dealt with to the full extent of the law.”

But not here, he said, suggesting government is quick to investigate the actions of its citizens but not the actions of the officials who work for the citizens.

In fact two bills were introduced to look into the fire and to authorize at least minimal state compensation.

House Bill 1352, as rewritten, calls for a five-member legislative commission to investigate the fire, taking testimony from victims and governments and to make recommendations by year’s end on how to handle future wildfires. An early version would also have authorized it to recommend compensation for the victims that the legislature would have to appropriate. But that part was removed because it amounted not only to special legislation, prohibited by the state constitution, but was illegally retrospective.

Another bill, HB 1361, was drawn up at the last minute which added prescribed fires to the existing list of “dangerous conditions” for which the state could be held liable—up to a point—if found negligent.  The statutory limits are $150,000 per injured person and $600,000 total for any one incident.  The existing state claims board would be authorized to investigate any injuries caused by wildfires “after Jan. 1, 2012,” meaning it’s not specifically retrospective.  And it authorized the board to recommend payouts beyond the current limits if it finds them justified because of state negligence.

The state claims board is composed of the attorney general, the state treasurer and the head of the Department of Public Safety.

Both bills won final passage Wednesday, the final day of the session.

If the victims are hoping that some state employees will be held personally liable in court, they’ll have to rely on their private attorneys to find a way. Another bill, HB 1283, designed to shift fire suppression activities from the state forest service (run by Colorado State University) to the Department of Public Safety, somehow had a little amendment added on. “Any and all claims, liabilities and damages, including attorneys’ fees,” relating to duties performed by CSU employees before June 30, 2012, “are hereby transferred and assumed by the state… and the Department of Public Safety.”

Duck, cover and run.  If there have been any internal demotions or punishments to date of persons responsible for the wildfire, they have not been publicized.  That may have something to do with the civil service system.

And that is what bothers the victims. The perpetrators still have their homes, still have their pensions and have admitted no liability, said  Appel.  “It is just disgusting to see their arrogance…. They bathe themselves in immunity.”

The homeowners had insurance, although it can’t possibly cover all their losses.  The law specifies that insurance companies can’t go after any possible state payouts to reduce their own.  Presumably, they will not delay or deny payments pending the outcome of the state claims process, which could take years.

When a state worker in a front-end loader dislodged a 6.7-ton boulder on Berthoud Pass in 1987, it rolled into a bus full of tourists, killing nine and injuring 15. It took six years, but the state ended up agreeing to a settlement of $2.5 million.

But that case didn’t involve governmental immunity.  The plaintiffs’ attorneys filed under the federal civil rights act, and they named individual defendants as well as the state.  The settlement went well beyond the immunity limits, which were somewhat lower then.  That’s because Gov. Roy Romer didn’t want tourists to think the state could kill them with virtual impunity.

Attorneys for North Fork fire victims might try a similar tactic—or something even more imaginative.  Or they can go straight to the state claims board, which would determine whether there was negligence and recommend damage awards for each plaintiff. The legislature would still have to appropriate the money.

Longtime Rocky Mountain News political columnist Peter Blake now writes Thursdays for the Colorado News Agency. Contact him at pblake0705@comcast.net You may re-publish his work at no charge and without further permission; please give full credit to Peter Blake and www.ColoradoNewsAgency.com

The rules for a special session state that a special legislative session may be called by the Governor pursuant to section 9 of article IV of the state constitution.

Senate Bill 2, sponsored by Sen. Pat Steadman, D-Denver, and Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, would have allowed for civil unions between two people, including same-sex couples,  to be recognized in Colorado.

Rep. B.J. Nikkel, R-Loveland, helped set the stage for the drama surrounding the bill by becoming the first Republican to support the proposal, voting for the measure when it was heard in House Judiciary Committee last week. Nikkel expressed her disappointment after Tuesday’s session.

“I respect Frank McNulty and his leadership but I disagree with his point of view and leadership on this issue,” said Nikkel. “It would have been good to allow this to come to a vote.”

Jace Woodrum, Deputy Executive Director of One Colorado, a gay and lesbian advocacy group, told members of the organization who had congregated in the basement of the Capitol after the defeat of SB2 to differentiate between GOP leadership and rank-and-file members.

“House leadership decided to play politics with our families,” said Woodrum. “This is Republican leadership who killed civil unions tonight—not all Republicans.”

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The state’s budget, which garnered strong bipartisan support as it emerged from the legislature, amounts to $19 billion.

Hickenlooper said the near unanimous support in the House, and bipartisan support in the Senate bodes well for the state.

“The overwhelming legislative approval of the budget shows that Colorado is a place where people get work done, and they get it done collaboratively and pragmatically,” said Hickenlooper.