DENVER • Colorado’s 67th General Assembly was gaveled into session Wednesday, with leaders making lofty promises but offering few specifics about how the state Legislature is going to tackle the economic recession and the state’s budget deficit.

Even if they can’t deliver on their promises, lawmakers made history by electing two blacks to the top leadership posts in the House and Senate. Colorado is the first state to do so.

With rising unemployment and a budget shortfall of at least $631 million, Senate President Peter Groff and the new House Speaker, Terrance Carroll, two Denver Democrats, and the Senate and House minority leaders, Josh Penry and Mike May, promised to work together.

But Penry warned that his party would do everything in its power to stop new taxes or fees, which have been floated by several Democrats.

Carroll said “our principal charge should be to continue to expand the circle of opportunity, so that every single Coloradan may have a genuine chance to succeed.”

He acknowledged that would be tough amid the recession and with a budget for this fiscal year, which ends June 30, far out of balance.

Groff urged senators to think of themselves as the guardians of the people, and said government’s “overriding role” is to “stand for the people who live in the margins.”

Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, took issue with Groff’s remark, arguing that government has been “usurping” the traditional role of churches, charitable organizations, families and neighbors.

“What government needs to do is get out of the way as opposed to get involved,” Schultheis said.

Penry, R-Fruita, struck a somewhat combative tone in his remarks from the podium, urging the Senate to “put the brakes” on organized labor’s gains in the past few years under Gov. Bill Ritter, a Democrat, and to focus on common ground that will help protect the state’s economy.

“Our first and highest focus should be summed up in a single word,” Penry said. “Jobs.”

The Western Slope Republican charged that the battles between organized labor and the business community have been a “catastrophic waste of resources and valuable political capital,” and urged both sides to move past what he called a “bygone era.”

Penry and May, R-Parker, called on the Legislature to “do no harm” when trying to find a solution to the budget shortfall or when attempting to solve funding crises in transportation, health care and education.

“You can count on Republicans as a ‘no’ against the budget,” Penry said, “if it relies on new taxes and big fees to spare government from making the tough choices it needs to bring its budget into balance.”

If Penry set a confrontational tone on a day usually reserved for ceremony and conviviality, Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs, was even more feisty.

“I only heard one set of ideas. Then I heard one set of bashing,” he said of Penry’s speech. “The Republicans have made it very clear, they will never vote ‘yes’ to move the state forward. They will always vote ‘no.’ I get that. That’s why the people continue to send Democrats to the state Senate.”

In the House, the biggest ovation of the day was for Andrew Romanoff, its speaker for four years. He was forced to leave office by term limits and was considered a front-runner for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by Ken Salazar. Last week, Ritter selected Denver Public Schools chief Michael Bennet instead.

After Carroll was formally elected speaker, he presented Romanoff with a ceremonial gavel and what Carroll described as the “Douglas Bruce block,” the cracked disk of wood that Romanoff pounded on to bring the House to order. Bruce, the Colorado Springs antitax crusader, was the Legislature’s most unruly member last year.

He was ousted in the Republican primary by Mark Waller, R-Colorado Springs, who was sworn in with the other freshman legislators from the Pikes Peak region – Reps. Dennis Apuan, D-Colorado Springs, and Carole Murray, R-Castle Rock; and Sen. Mark Scheffel, R-Parker. Murray’s and Scheffel’s districts include Teller County. Former state Rep. Keith King was also sworn in as a senator.

Despite the often strident partisanship on the opening day, lawmakers took time to note that history was being made in Colorado and later this month in Washington.

“As Americans, it is important that we acknowledge with national pride what the electoral rise of men named Obama, Groff and Carroll says about the progress of equality in our republic,” Penry said.

Carroll acknowledged the moment, saying, “My mother – the daughter of a sharecropper and the granddaughter of a slave – taught me the importance of opportunity.”

Then he sketched out some of the ways House Democrats would try to expand opportunity in the state:

• A new tax credit for employers who bring “good, high-paying jobs” to the state;• A loan guarantee program intended to open the credit markets to small businesses;• A “temporary time out” provision for homeowners threatened with foreclosure.

Groff outlined just some of the problems the Senate will wrestle with over the next four months – rising unemployment, the budget shortfall, skyrocketing home foreclosures, nearly 800,000 uninsured residents, lagging college readiness among high school graduates and a crumbling transportation infrastructure.

President-elect Barack Obama is welcomed by President George W. Bush for a meeting at the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Jan. 7, 2009, with former presidents, from left, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton, and Jimmy Carter. Photo by (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)