Budget week — part 2 — plus a flurry of election reforms and more this week in the Colorado legislature

It s Budget Crunch Part II in the state Capitol this week as the state budget and several dozen spending measures hit the House The proposed budget for the - fiscal year which starts in July cleared the state Senate in perfunctory fashion last week Now it begins what will likely be a more tense journey through the House That means there will be scant committee meetings on this side of the Capitol as House members spend majority of the week debating the budget known as the long bill and its cluster of -some related measures known as orbitals The long bill is well long and the orbitals revolve around it The legislature is a clever place If all goes to plan the budget will be on the House floor Wednesday Thursday and if need be Friday for a parade of amendment proposals from Democrats and Republicans alike It ll then likely go to a conference committee of House and Senate legislators to resolve amendments made in each chamber before going to Gov Jared Polis for passage into law The reason the budget s visit to the House may be more tense is because there are rumors just as happens every year now that House Republicans may request that the long bill be read aloud It s a constitutionally protected procedural move that would essentially halt all other business while the budget all of its numerous several pages of mumbo-jumbo numbers and line items is read out in monotone by a computer Doing so would take the better part of an entire calendar day House Republicans spokeswoman Laurel Boyle reported Monday morning that the caucus was still sorting out its budget plans but added that its members would generally advance amendments challenging what Republican lawmakers consider waste fraud and abuse in the budget The budget debate comes after a tense meager days in the House On Friday and Sunday House Democrats limited and for particular measures utterly ended debate on four bills related to abortion and transgender rights Limiting or ending debate are tools rarely deployed against filibusters or in this occurrence heated debates We ll see if that has consequences for the budget in a scant days Speaking of the budget The school funding bill is also moving this week After negotiations with nervous school districts House Speaker Julie McCluskie unveiled her proposal last week and it will be in the House s Schooling Committee on Monday Here s what else is happening in the Capitol this week with votes subject to change Labor bill inches closer to finish line Senate Bill Democrats and labor unions marquee bill of the year passed a final committee vote last week and is now scheduled for House floor work this week That might happen Tuesday or Friday We say might for two reasons One the budget is a floor-work blackhole from which no other bills can escape And two and more critically is that negotiations around the bill are ongoing The bill would eliminate a provision of labor law that requires a second union vote before organized workers can fully negotiate a part of their contracts dealing with dues and fees It s backed by legislative Democrats and opposed by businesses and Polis who has gestured at vetoing the bill should it pass without flourishing negotiations with businesses Such a deal hasn t happened yet though McCluskie is pushing But time is running out The bill now demands two votes in the House before moving to Polis and there s just one month left in the session Vacancy committee bonanza Before the budget crunch begins the House s State Civic Military Veteran Affairs Committee will hear five F-I-V-E bills Monday afternoon dealing with vacancies in elected offices Typically that means vacancy committees the process by which a small group of party executives and participants select a replacement when an elected official leaves office early The process has drawn intense scrutiny in up-to-date years roughly a third of the legislature earned a vacancy appointment at one point or another and rumblings about backroom deals marred a modern process late last year and prompted renewed calls for restructuring Two of the bills focus on replacing county commissioners and three deal broadly with vacancy committees There s an intraparty kerfuffle there too over competing bills on the latter topic We ll have more on that later in contemporary times Housing vote and a porn bill in the Senate Fresh from Budget Crunch Part I the Senate will have little time to catch its breath Of multiple votes scheduled in that chamber this week several are for housing bills That includes House Bill the so-called YIGBY bill for Yes in God s Backyard which would make it easier for houses of worship and educational institutions to build housing on their land That s up for a first floor vote Related Articles Tenants facing eviction could get jury trial under bill before Colorado legislature A limit on liquor sales TABOR in the crosshairs paying college athletes and more from the Colorado legislature this week Colorado lawmakers introduce bill to expand protections for undocumented immigrants Opinion Vacancy appointments have become Colorado s new pipeline to office undermining democracy Lawmakers pass limit on liquor sales at Colorado grocery stores as industry presses Gov Polis to veto it House Bill is also up for a floor vote possibly as early as Monday The bill would among other things give tenants more time to pay back-rent before their landlords can try to evict them House Bill will get a committee vote Thursday That bill would block landlords from charging fees when one of their tenants dies in the middle of a lease Outside of the housing world Senate Bill is up for a first floor vote this week too That bill which has bipartisan assistance would require pornographic websites to check users ages before they re allowed to access the material within Similar policies have been adopted in other states Brace for more bill signings On a final note The tail end of the legislative session means Polis begins signing bills into law in earnest That s been happening for a insufficient weeks now of program but as heaps of provision crosses the line expect to see more stories from us and others about proposals moving into state statute On Monday morning Polis signed a bill eliminating anti-same sex marriage language from state law Voters eliminated the defunct constitutional ban on same-sex marriages in November and this bill conforms state law to the constitution and to the U S Supreme Court ruling that invalidated our marriage bans Stay up-to-date with Colorado Politics by signing up for our weekly newsletter The Spot