DENVER (AP) - The Latest on the Colorado Legislature’s last day (all times local):
9:55 p.m.
Colorado’s Legislature has adjourned for the year without a deal to keep the state energy office running at full strength.
The Republican-led Senate declined late Wednesday to consider amendments by House Democrats to a bill to continue the agency’s mandate beyond June 30.
Both chambers adjourned shortly thereafter.
Democrats had restored several renewable energy and energy efficiency programs slated for elimination under GOP Sen. Ray Scott’s bill.
Scott favors an all-of-the-above Colorado energy strategy, including promotion of coal and nuclear energy. Democrats wanted the Colorado Energy Office to continue its focus on renewable energy.
Lawmakers say the office will operate on a pared-down basis.
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8:30 p.m.
Colorado’s long debate over where people can smoke pot will continue for at least another year.
State lawmakers failed to agree on a bill to define areas where adults can use pot. The disagreement came Wednesday night in the closing hours of the 2017 Legislature.
Lawmakers at first considered legislation to authorize Amsterdam-style pot clubs. That proposal that had bipartisan support because of complaints that tourists and people who don’t want to smoke pot at home are smoking weed in public.
But the club proposal was abandoned weeks ago in light of opposition from Gov. John Hickenlooper and some other lawmakers.
A more modest proposal to define areas that are open to the public failed Wednesday. Lawmakers could not agree whether it should be a crime to smoke pot on a private front porch.
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3:30 p.m.
Lawmakers have passed a bill to modernize the Colorado Open Records Act on the last day of the legislative session.
Sen. John Kefalas and Rep. Dan Pabon, both Democrats, sponsored the measure. It presumes that Colorado residents are entitled to access electronic government records in their original formats or in other ways that can be analyzed by computer.
Colorado’s Senate approved a revised House bill Wednesday. It was amended to protect security information vital to keeping utilities and other critical infrastructure safe.
Other states allow citizens to obtain public records in searchable formats. That hasn’t been the case in Colorado, where citizens often receive paper records that cannot be readily analyzed using computer programs.
Several hospitals, public universities and local government agencies opposed the bill, in part because they feared releases of confidential information. At one point, Senate Republicans sought to change the act itself to cover the judicial branch.
Kefalas and Pabon insisted their bill wasn’t intended to change what is disclosed, but how it’s disclosed.
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12:10 p.m.
Colorado’s House has passed a bill intended to modernize the state’s open records law.
But it’s a race to the finish because the Senate must act before the legislative session ends Wednesday. And the House has had the Senate’s previous version of the bill since March 23.
Sen. John Kefalas and Rep. Dan Pabon, both Democrats, sponsored the measure, which presumes that Colorado residents are entitled to access government records in ways that can be analyzed by computer.
Other states allow the release of public records in searchable formats. But that’s not always the case in Colorado, where citizens often obtain only paper records, making it tough to sort through budget items, crime statistics or other data.
Several hospitals, public universities and local government agencies opposed the bill, in part because they feared releases of confidential information. Some sought to change what can and cannot be released under the Colorado Open Records Act.
Lawmakers amended the bill Wednesday to ensure that sensitive security information affecting utilities and other infrastructure is exempt.
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11:30 a.m.
Colorado’s Legislature has passed an ambitious bill to spare hospitals severe budget cuts while generating $1.8 billion for transportation.
The House on Wednesday sent the complex legislation to the governor, who’s expected to sign it.
The bill was initiated by GOP Sen. Jerry Sonnenberg. In a break from Republican orthodoxy, Sonnenberg exempted from state income limits payments that hospitals make to obtain federal matching funds.
Those funds are crucial to rural hospitals’ survival. And the need was acute this year: Colorado hospitals stood to lose $528 million because of cuts in those subsidies that were made to balance the state’s $26.8 billion budget.
By increasing recreational marijuana taxes and leasing state buildings, the bill also raises $1.8 billion for roads over the next 20 years. It’s the only roads funding measure this session. Both parties’ leaders had deemed transportation a top priority this year.
The Legislative session ends Wednesday.
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3:00 a.m.
Colorado lawmakers are concluding business for the year with hard-fought agreements on highways, hospitals and affordable housing.
But the split Legislature racked up a lot of misses, too, during the session that ends Wednesday.
Republicans who control the Senate and Democrats who rule the House failed to agree on a plan for what to do if the federal government scraps the health care law.
Negotiations on a complicated energy bill were hanging in the balance on the final day.
Highways and housing were top priorities for politicians in both parties this year. And they’ll have some accomplishments to brag about, especially a plan to borrow nearly $2 billion for highway infrastructure.
Lawmakers also made modest steps toward reducing homebuilder liability as a strategy to encourage more low-cost housing construction.
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