Small Towns, Big Impact, Listen Up! Local Government Impact Hearings Wanted

~Anne Boswell

Remember when you heard about a bill that became a law in Colorado that didn't really affect Denver but greatly affected our small towns in rural Southeast Colorado?

Yeah, well, sometimes a bill sounds like a good idea in theory but the impact on small local governments and communities is overlooked and sometimes ignored.

State Senator Rod Pelton and Representative Ty Winter are presenting a bill that would require impact hearings on potential effects of a bill on local governments.

House Bill 26-1140 will be heard on the House Floor today, Wednesday, February 25th, according to the Colorado General Assembly's website agenda.

According to the bill's summary, this bill allows the speaker of the house of representatives, the minority leader of the house of representatives, the president of the senate and the minority leader of the senate to each choose up to five items or measures to have an impact hearing on. This would allow a voice to how a bill could impact a local small government like many in Southeast Colorado.

Taken from the bill's summary. There are some requirements.

If a member of legislative leadership selects a legislative measure to have a local government impact hearing, the member must:

• Determine which committee of reference will hold the local government impact hearing if the legislative measure is assigned to more than one committee of reference; and

  
  
  
  

• Notify the chair of the applicable committee of reference and the staff of the legislative council that the legislative measure will have a local government impact hearing.

  
  

If a member of the legislative leadership selects a legislative measure to have a local government impact hearing, the staff of the legislative council is required to include the local government impact hearing on the calendar as part of the regularly scheduled legislative hearing for the legislative measure in the applicable committee of reference.

During the local government impact hearing, one or more local governments or statewide organizations that represents local governments may provide testimony regarding the impact of the legislative measure on local governments for the duration of the local government impact hearing without other limitations on the length of testimony.

The bill requires the director of research of the legislative council to develop procedures for the implementation of local government impact hearings.

If you'd like to watch on the Colorado Channel or listen, the link is here.