Colorado state legislators prep for rural issues

While the 69th General Assembly doesn't officially start business until next week, the two legislators from Northeastern Colorado are already hard at work on bills on water, agriculture and other issues affecting rural Colorado. Next week's session marks the start of the last two years in office for Sen. Greg Brophy (R-Wray) and Rep. Jerry Sonnenberg (R-Sterling), who are both term-limited in 2014. The November election changed little for Brophy in the state Senate; he has served in a Democratic-controlled Senate for the past six years. The 2012 election changed control of the House from the one-vote majority held by Republicans to a five-seat Democratic majority. That meant Sonnenberg is no longer chair of the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee.

Sonnenberg said this week his agenda for the upcoming session is the same as it has been for the past six years: protecting agriculture, water and rural Colorado.

"It's my job to educate our urban cousins on the impacts of rural Colorado," he said. That includes both the impact of rural Colorado on urban areas, and how the laws they want to pass will impact rural Colorado.

Click here to read more in the Fort Morgan Times.

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