Yesterday, the Colorado Supreme Court responded to the interrogatory submitted by the Colorado State Legislature to seek clarity on whether or not the legislature could pick up where we left off prior to the public health crisis. At issue was whether or not our Constitutional requirement to conduct business in 120 calendar days meant consecutively, or whether we could pause and then pick up where we left off when we return. 

Hosting a Tele-Town Hall event from home

The Supreme Court agreed that the language surrounding the calendar day rule was ambiguous. However, they upheld  Joint Rule 44(g), a rule that was unanimously adopted by the legislature in 2009 allowing the legislature to pause in the event of a public health crisis. This means that when it is safe to return, we will start on day 68 of our 120 day calendar, even if that date extends beyond the old May 6 deadline.

This ruling helps provide clarity on the timing of our return, the pace of business when we return, and what type of legislation we can take up when we do return. There were hundreds of bills already in process when we left, and we didn't know if we would have days or weeks upon our return to finish passing those bills. This ruling also ensures that the public has unfettered access to their government without compromising their health. If we were to continue our lawmaking right now, we would impede public participation, as well as put hundreds of nonpartisan staff members unnecessarily in harms way. 

Despite this bit of good news, we are still running up against several pressing deadlines, namely those connected to the state budget. Constitutionally, we must pass the budget by June 30, and school districts need us to pass the School Finance Act by approximately June 1. Therefore the Joint Budget Committee will start accelerating our work in pulling together the budget. Of course, balancing the budget this year comes with a whole new set of challenges, but at least we now have a better sense of the parameters in which to do our work.