Email from CO Senator Moe Keller - Post Election Update 2004

[eleny]

The 2004 Election Campaigning is over ( did this seem like an extended season or what?) and the voters have chosen their candidates and decided their issues. I was very active in a number of races and issues, and I have never before seen so much involvement, interest and activism on the part of so many! Thank you to you all for being a part of the democratic process. Please don't go away; there is still so much to do. Please stay informed, and continue to contact your elected officials. We depend on you for education and information.

As you know, the Democrats have won control of both the State Senate and the State House of Representatives for the first time in 44 years! While we are thrilled at this victory, we are also well aware of our duties and obligations to make the Legislature a deliberative body focusing on the peoples' business. Our priorities are as follows: first, to restore respect and civility to the august chambers of the Senate and House; second, to deal with the fiscal crisis of the State and work with the Governor on Tabor ( more on this in a minute); and third, to save higher education from any more destructive budget cuts. The Senate Democrats have elected Joan Fitz-Gerald as Senate President ( the first female Senate President in the history of the State), Peter Groff as Senate President Pro-Tem, Ken Gordon as Majority Leader and Jim Isgar as Majority Leader Pro-Tem. Ron Tupa remains as caucus chair. I , along with Abel Tapia of Pueblo, hve been elected to serve on the Joint Budget Committee. This is a difficult and time consuming responsibility, but I find the work interesting. I hope and plan on doing the best I can to propose a balanced budget that does not inflict any more cuts to higher education nor to our Medicaid recipients.

Our first full week of JBC hearings has finished with a number of state agencies presenting their budgets to us. ( there are six members of the committee, three Senators and three Representatives). On Tuesday, the Governor made his budget request to the committee. For the first time, he has suggested a referred measure to the voters this fall to 'deBruce' the Tabor amendment. This proposal would allow the state to keep a specific amount of money incoming to the state for a specific purpose. The amount of requested monies is still to be determined and we will continue the dialog with the Governor as the weeks go by. It is the intention of the Democrats that this Tabor issue be debated and resolved in January, before other business is undertaken. We do not want to repeat the mistakes of the past and leave such an important item to the last weeks of the legislative session. I will continue to update you on the budget and other issues in the weeks to come. Thank you for your continued interest in government. Sincerely, Senator Moe Keller


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Senator Moe Keller
Web: www.knowledgemessenger.com/prod/?app=senkeller
Email: [e-mail]