Senate Democrats today pushed through a bill that is expected to create a windfall of new members for organized labor in the public transportation industry. Senate Bill 251 will eliminate a requirement that the Regional Transportation District, or RTD, contract at least half of its bus services out to private providers.

It is estimated that contracting out those services saves taxpayers several hundred million dollars annually. SB 251 would not only remove the current requirement that at least 50 percent of bus services are privately provided, but it would also cap private contracts at no more than 55 percent.

“This bill is about preventing the unions from competing,” said Sen. Josh Penry, R-Fruita. “It’s not as if this is a question – the evidence is in, the evidence is clear, competition saves the taxpayer money.”

“Limiting competition is bad for everyone. It’s bad for the taxpayer, it’s bad for the services that are provided,” he continued.

Sen. Shawn Mitchell, R-Broomfield, echoed Penry’s comments. “This bill is high-altitude policy making and it freezes private-sector contracting. A vote for this bill is a vote against cost savings and flexibility.”

Mitchell said the move away from money-saving private contracts makes even less sense in light of the current budget crisis RTD is experiencing. 

 “RTD's budget is ballooning, and the proposed solution is to squeeze private contractors and to protect more turf for public union employees.”

Senate Republicans tried repeatedly to stop or at least water-down the bill in hopes of protecting the competitive contracting system that they say keeps down costs. The best they could do was to raise the cap from 55 to 58 percent. That change was made with an amendment by Sen. Steve Ward, R-Littleton.

Since RTD currently contracts out slightly over 54 percent of their bus services, SB 251 as drafted would have effectively prevented any further services, for any reason, from being privately provided. The amended version still leaves little room to work with, argued Ward.

“It's not as much as I would like,” said Ward. “But it's better than nothing.”

In comments after the debate, Ward commented dryly, “Maybe I should have held out for 58.6 percent.”

Republicans also accused the majority party Democrats of running the bill in order to “return a favor” to their political backers.

“The race is on to see if the trial lawyers or the union bosses make out better this session,” said Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray. “This bill moves the union bosses a lot closer to victory.”