A bill making it cheaper for motorists to fill their tanks and for patients to fill prescriptions was postponed in the Senate today after a freshman Democrat, who opposes the measure, said he was unprepared to debate his own amendments to it.
The motion by Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, to lay over House Bill 1208 followed an unsuccessful attempt by another Democrat to derail the measure by sending it to committee for another hearing. That led the bill's miffed sponsor, Republican Sen. Steve Johnson, of Fort Collins, to ask what was going on.
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Sen. Steve Johnson of Fort Collins |
"You and I have discussed this bill for several days," Johnson told Morse at the microphone, pointing out Morse already had shown him his proposed amendments, effectively gutting the measure, last Friday. "It appears to me we have had adequate time to work on amendments."
Morse countered that he had been serving as the morning session's acting chairman, "... so I haven't been able to prepare myself mentally to actually run these five amendments.” Johnson agreed to a delay until Tuesday after making clear he didn't want debate on the bill to "drag on forever."
Johnson's bill, which he is carrying with Rep. Cheri Jahn, D-Arvada, in the House, allows for gas and prescription drugs to be sold at lower costs by companies, such as Safeway and Wal-Mart, exempting them from the state’s Unfair Practices Act.
Johnson told members the "heavy hand of government" shouldn't be able to regulate the market in a way that actually backfires on consumers, preventing enterprises from giving the public the best value for its dollar.
“It seems dumb when companies are trying to provide a benefit to consumers and
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Sen. John Morse, of Colorado Springs |
government says they can’t,” Johnson said.
HB 1208, which was up on second reading today, passed through the State, Veterans and Military Affairs Committee by a 3-1 vote last week.
The measure already has a bipartisan-support list of co-sponsors that include: Sen. Chris Romer, D-Denver, Sen. Betty Boyd, D-Lakewood, Sen. Ron May, R-Colorado Springs and Sen. Nancy Spence, R-Centennial.
Johnson noted that HB 1208 is a “free enterprise and a long-term interest to Colorado” in addition to being pro-consumer. The proposal passed through the state House by a 60-4 count, he said.
“There’s so much competition in the gas industry, and government should limit its restriction to monopolies,” Johnson said. “Safeway and Wal-Mart are not going to take over the gas industry.”
Senators opposing Johnson’s bill suggested that it creates an unlevel-playing field for smaller, independent gas stations that don’t make up for lost revenues with other product sales. Stores such as Wal-Mart, King Soopers and Safeway benefit from such practices, they said.
Johnson disagreed.
“This bill is not about predatory pricing,” he said. “It’s simply using gas as a loss-leader.”