One of my favorite aphorisms about Colorado politics is that the House Education Committee is where good education reform goes to die.
Case in point is Senate Bill 57, the school spending transparency legislation that committee Democrats shot down after hearing more than 30 citizens and activists who volunteered to come down and testify for the bill.
Thanks to a Face The State mini-investigation, we learn today it was even worse than that:
Also known as Senate Bill 57, the bill was postponed indefinitely after four hours of committee debate that lasted late into the evening. [Democrat] Speaker Terrance Carroll and [Republican] House Minority Leader Mike May arrived to work the next morning ready to revive it. But they were too late.
When legislation is postponed indefinitely it is technically not dead until the committee report is officially filed with the House clerk. This process usually takes about a day, or at least 24 hours. If the bill is intercepted before it reaches the clerk, then a motion can be made to reintroduce it.
“I think Merrifield made a dash for the clerk’s desk,†May said, referring to Rep. Mike Merrifield, D-Manitou Springs, who chairs the House Education Committee.
Some might call this an example of irony: using an obscure legislative tactic to kill a bipartisan proposal that would more easily show citizens how their school tax funds are being spent.
Wow – just wow. Yes, as the Face The State piece points out, this is the same Mike Merrifield who said that we charter school supporters have a “special” extra crispy baking compartment reserved for us in the afterlife.
Simply put, these shenanigans occur as the result of having Democrats in charge down at the State Capitol.
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