I had two of my non-partisan bills go to committee for their hearings this past Tuesday the 16th. Sadly both failed along party lines. We are mourning good policy because apparently political agenda is priority
But first! A bill I am sponsoring with Representative McKean passed through its 3rd reading in the House. HB21-1052 will remove existing restrictions on pumped hydroelectric facilities as a source of stored energy. This type of energy capture is done by pumping water to a high elevation reservoir using solar or other excess energy. Then when we need additional energy in the grid, for example during the cold snap we saw in Texas a few weeks ago, the water can freely flow back down and its kinetic energy will be converted to electricity by a turbine. This bill will create extra incentives to create clean hydroelectricity facilities by making it eligible to be classified as renewable energy.
SB12-005: My Small Business Fairness Act Bill's goal was to give small businesses a fair chance to compete with big box stores if they follow health and safety protocols. It was going to prevent blatant discrimination that can be ordered by Governor's and unelected Health Bureaucrats.
During the bill's hearing we heard support from many Colorado small businesses and organizations that span almost all of Colorado, including the CO Restaurant Association, several Chambers of Commerce, and the Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance.
The legislators that voted against this common sense bill were not representing the hard working employees and small business owners in their local districts. Those small Mom & Pop shops struggled, while nearby big box chain stores were filled with customers.
Although this bill was killed, I will continue to fight for all of our small businesses and their hard working staff
You can read a Colorado Politics article giving a brief summary with many comments and quotes given throughout committee here.
SB21-010: My Ballot Signature Verification Bill was also killed along party lines in committee. It was going to help Colorado make voting easy and make cheating hard.
I learned this past year of an easy, anonymous loophole in Colorado's election process that would result in fraudulent ballots being counted. I worked with our County Clerk Angela Myers to find a simple but effective solution. It simply required a witness to provide their name and address so that the witness signature could be verified. According to the Democrats, simply writing down your name and address creates too much strain and difficulty for voters. Do they value election integrity? Do they value honest elections? Do they think vote dilution is a good thing?
