Silly costumes helped, a little.

As they wrapped up their formal orientation process in early December, 19 members of the state Legislature’s incoming freshman class were in a hearing room in the basement of the state Capitol, boning up on the budget process.

Appropriating the taxpayers’ money may be the crucial function of the General Assembly, but it takes a special kind of person to find excitement in the nuts and bolts of the process. So the instructors, three members of the Legislature’s Joint Budget Committee staff, tried to liven things up a bit.

Assuming their roles as members of a mock Joint Budget Committee, Eric Kurtz put on a fake beard, Patrick Brodhead a Brunhild helmet and shaven-headed Viktor Bojilov a big black wig.

They got a few laughs. But it was hard to disguise the dry-as-dust lawmaking lessons the staffers were dispensing: how to read the budget bill; how to offer an amendment; the concept of continuing authorization, in which a sum appropriated in one year is automatically renewed unless specifically eliminated.

“It’s after lunch, and I’m falling asleep,” said Sen.-elect Joyce Foster, D-Denver.

Rep.-elect Mark Waller, a 39-year-old Republican lawyer from Colorado Springs, was front and center, trying to soak it all in.

“At one moment I sort of feel like I have a pretty good grasp of what’s going on, and then something will come up that I just am completely blown away on, and I’m thinking, ‘Oh my gosh, do I know what I’m doing?'” he said later. “But I’m at least confident that I’m in the same place, or better, than all the other freshmen.”

Among the afternoon’s pearls of wisdom: Roll with the punches. “You’re probably going to get frustrated that you don’t have enough information,” Kurtz told the class, but he cautioned that in the tight confines of a 120-day legislative session, impossible deadlines and an information vacuum were par for the course.

Also, you can’t do everything, so don’t try.

“You pick and choose what issues you want to get involved in,” Bojilov told the newbies.

“Because you can’t all get involved in every junction on every issue.”

Kurtz also reminded the freshmen to beware the source. “You’re going to have to sort out ‘is this lobbyist telling the whole truth and nothing but the truth?'” he said.

Kurtz told the class that amending the budget is a zero-sum game; in tight times such as these, the state of Colorado spends every available penny, and it is forbidden to run a deficit.

“If the amendment is increasing the general fund, we need to know where you’re going to cut the general fund,” he said.

That led to a discussion of the essence of legislating: getting others to agree to give you a slice of pie even though it means some other legislator’s slice gets smaller.

For pie-slicing practice, the class went into a mock budget hearing that spontaneously produced a preview of an issue likely to generate some heat when the legislature convenes: Waller and Rep.-elect Sal Pace, D-Pueblo, had a mini-debate over the Department of Corrections’ decision to build a new headquarters in Colorado Springs.

Pace, whose city bid on the DOC project, introduced a motion to increase vocational training for prisoners by cutting money for the new headquarters. Waller argued for leaving the headquarters budget alone.

When a straw vote was taken, Waller had his first victory.

Where’s the restroom?

Freshman orientation began the Thursday afternoon after Election Day, with hellos from the General Assembly’s leadership and legislative service staff and a tour of the members’ new surroundings in the Capitol, including key details such as the location of the members’ restrooms, which are unmarked.

The following morning they received briefings on “Legislators’ Rights and Responsibilities,” their pay and benefits, and an overview of Capitol security.

For three days in mid-November, the freshmen learned about the bill drafting process, with a more detailed look at the operations of the Legislative Council, the Office of Legislative Legal Services and the Joint Budget Committee, and a seminar entitled, “Understanding the Legislative Environment – the Role of Lobbyists.”

The wrap-up came in early December with a two-day session on the state budget, including separate seminars on major budget categories such as education, the justice system, transportation and health and human services programs.

“Information overload” was how Rep.-elect Dennis Apuan, D-Colorado Springs, described the process. But he said he appreciated the job the legislative staffers and others were doing in bringing the newbies up to speed.

“The legislative staff here is just tremendous at helping us get moving in the right direction,” Waller said. “You can tell they’ve been to this rodeo before.”

“They don’t want new legislators to have that deer-in-the-headlights look on Wednesday, when the session begins,” Waller said.

If so, the taxpayers got their money’s worth. The orientation was mandatory for new members, but they were paid not a penny to attend. Their travel expenses were picked up, but they won’t begin drawing their $30,000 salary until Wednesday.

Let the wrangling begin

Technically, every legislator has a five-bill quota, and the freshmen, like their more senior colleagues, seem to be looking to be the lead sponsor of a bill that addresses an obvious need in a common-sense way that can rise above partisan bickering. But such ideas are not exactly a dime a dozen, and there are 100 legislators hunting – and sometimes competing – for ownership.

“I’m not sure I have five great ideas for what should be happening in Colorado in the upcoming legislative session,” said Waller, a former prosecutor with the district attorney’s office in Pueblo and with the Judge Advocate General’s office in Iraq.

He has already met a Dec. 15 deadline for submitting preliminary paperwork on three bills: to require disclaimers on clothes collection bins if they are operated by for-profit companies; to add a new derivative of methamphetamine to the list of banned drugs; and to better define “explosive devices” to exclude dry-ice bombs and other prankster devices from the Class 4 felony category.

He’s also working on a proposal to give home-schooled children free access to college courses. “When you’re in high school, you can start taking classes at UCCS as a part of your high school curriculum,” he said. “Home-schooled kids can’t do that unless they’re enrolled in the public school.”

He said Rep. Michael Merrifield, D-Colorado Springs and chairman of the House Education Committee, had told Waller to expect a fight over the home-school bill.

He expected that – winning a straw vote during orientation would be easier than getting a bill passed by the House.

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Contact the writer: 476-1654 or dean.toda@gazettedev.gazette.com  

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