DENVER – Three days remain in the 2016 Colorado General Assembly and tensions are high, meetings are long, and compromises are scarce.

Last week, after nearly 100 days of closed-door negotiations, the public learned that a grand bargain on construction defects was unattainable.

“I’m very disappointed. … I’m very disappointed,” said Senate Majority Leader Mark Scheffel, who has worked on the issue for the past three years.

But Scheffel’s disappointment isn’t rooted in the fact that this was the term-limited Republican’s last shot at curbing a glut of long and costly construction defects lawsuits that critics say has stifled the state’s multifamily residential construction market.

“I’m really disappointed for the people and I don’t mean that to be trite,” Scheffel said. “With this issue you squarely bump into Colorado citizens that need some help. The stories you hear from the full spectrum of the population: The young future of the state that are trying to get a foothold in the American dream that is homeownership, to the way other end of the spectrum – our aging population that is trying to hang onto the American dream.”

Scheffel, from Parker, refused to assign blame in the breakdown of negotiations. He instead highlighted affordable housing bills introduced in the House and a bill he introduced Friday that calls for a study of the litigation process and a pilot program for a special construction-defects court system.

It’s unclear whether those bills will clear the House and Senate with three days remaining. It takes exactly three days for a bill to pass both chambers and go to the governor – but that is with everything going perfectly.

In Colorado, bills that aren’t sent to the governor by midnight Wednesday die on the calendar.

That has meant a week of late meetings and frantic compromises.

It’s unclear whether lawmakers will address some key issues of the year.

A bill that would create a presidential preference primary has foundered in the House. A last-minute bill was introduced Friday in the Senate to try to save the issue.

The governor-backed proposal to retain millions of dollars in tax revenue that would otherwise be refunded to taxpayers has stalled in the Senate for weeks as everyone waits to see if Senate President Bill Cadman, R-Colorado Springs, will introduce it to a committee that is likely to pass it or kill it. Cadman has been clear he opposes the bill, but he is being lobbied hard by other Republicans who like how the money would be spent, especially on transportation and education.

Gov. John Hickenlooper said Thursday he hadn’t given up hope on the issue or on the primary issue.

“We’re close, but it’s not like horseshoes,” the Democrat said.

Hickenlooper said despite the split chambers, things are working well in the statehouse. Many states have failed to pass budgets and in Washington D.C., Republicans have refused to hold hearings on the president’s pick for the U.S. Supreme Court.

But Hickenlooper pointed to not only a balanced and bipartisan budget, but also the confirmation of his pick for lieutenant governor in the Republican-controlled Senate.

“That’s certainly a strong indication that people aren’t carrying partisan grudges and they are really looking at the issues,” Hickenlooper said.

Scheffel echoed that sentiment.

“Given our situation, split government, an election year, a really unusual, interesting election year and all the issues that go with that, I think it has been successful,” he said. “I think people have seen good governance here in the midst of a lot of chaos.”

That chaos included a committee hearing that started Thursday afternoon and ended at 4:45 a.m. Friday. The House Judiciary Committee also met late Wednesday night, postponing the meeting both times until after the full House had met.

“We do get stacked up at the end, but I’ve never experienced two nights in the same week in the same committee where we have cut testimony off so we could go back to floor work at our convenience,” Assistant House Minority Leader Polly Lawrence said. “I certainly have never heard of anyone staying as late as we did.”

Lawrence, R-Roxborough Park, blamed House leadership for the poor time management.

The Senate met until midnight Thursday and until 8 p.m. Friday trying to keep things moving.

Things probably will run long in the final three days as lawmakers tackle some difficult issues remaining, and attempt to rewrite the story so 2016 isn’t a list of what was left undone in an election year.

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Contact Megan Schrader: 286-0644

Twitter @CapitolSchrader

Colorado State Capitol Building

Gabriel Eckert