Proposal could fix amendment's flaws

Rocky Mountain News Editorial  

3/24/07

      Legislative leaders finally got it right this week when they proposed fixing a constitutional problem with a constitutional amendment.

      You might reasonably ask how else can you fix such a problem, but in fact the House has already approved a bill that would ask the voters to repair the flaws in Amendment 41 with a mere referred statute next year.

      That is not acceptable, and we trust the Senate will kill House Bill 1304.

      The proposed amendment is little more than an early draft. But it seems to take care of Amendment 41's overly broad gift restrictions by stating that the prohibited gifts of $50 or more must be intended to influence a public official. The revised ban wouldn't bar the children of state employees or contractors from getting scholarships, say, as 41 apparently does. Nor would it prevent officials from accepting any kind of information from lobbyists, grass-roots activists or everyday constituents relating to their public duties, even if it cost $50 or more to produce.

      And, theoretically, a legislator as well as a university professor would be entitled to accept a cash-laden Nobel Prize.

      Lobbyists, who under 41 are prohibited from buying even a cup of coffee for a lawmaker, aren't singled out in the draft language we've seen. Whether they could resume buying meals for the people they are trying to persuade if the revised amendment passes we don't know.

      The so-called revolving door provision of Amendment 41 should also be overhauled. It now says no lawmakers can "personally represent another person or entity for compensation" before the legislature for two years after leaving office. It was meant to prohibit them from going straight into private lobbying, but as written would even prohibit a lawmaker who is appointed to a cabinet position from promoting his budget to his former colleagues.

      Lawmakers are hoping the Colorado Supreme Court will bail them out of the gift problems by giving liberal answers to some "interrogatories" regarding gift restrictions. They shouldn't count on that. Even if the court provides the answers they want, other issues in 41 will still need resolution.

      Also needing passage is Senate Bill 210, which puts the ethics commission together as 41 commanded. Some lawmakers hope the commission itself will "reinterpret" awkward constitutional language, making another trip to the ballot unnecessary, but we don't see that happening.

      Presumably the final amendment draft will have to satisfy former state school board member Jared Polis or he may a) work against the proposal or b) promote his own initiated revision. He financed 41, and presumably has enough money left to do it all over in 2008.

      We know that won't be easy. The battle over 41 has become tangled in the political contest between Polis and Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald for the 2nd Congressional District next year. But a constitutional amendment is needed and we hope lawmakers put one on the 2008 ballot.