Colorado legislature: RTD reform bill dies, with a whimper, as session enters final day

The Colorado legislature’s 2024 session is set to end Wednesday night, and the House and Senate convened for a final day of debate and votes to wrap up bills on a number of priorities, including property tax reform and land-use policy changes that will affect local governments.

This story will be updated throughout the day.

Updated at 10:08 a.m.: The much-discussed and much-rewritten bill to reform the Regional Transportation District was unveiled this session with a roar — maligned by critics but backed by supporters as a needed rework of metro Denver’s transit agency.

It died this week with barely a whimper, blinking out on the Senate’s calendar in the final days.

House Bill 1447 passed the House late last week, after it had been stripped of its most controversial provisions, including a plan to overhaul RTD’s elected board and governance. It then passed an initial Senate committee but languished on the calendar of the Senate Appropriations Committee; it needed to get out of that committee and pass a first full vote on the floor before the end of Tuesday.

That didn’t happen, meaning it’s impossible for the bill to pass now, given that the session ends Wednesday night. The bill would’ve still required better coordination between RTD and a regional council of metro-area governments, and it included strategies to bolster RTD staff, budget transparency and planning for transit service to special events.

It wasn’t the only bill to die procedurally Tuesday. Among the other casualties was a House bill to study the possibility of launching a universal health care system in Colorado, plus another House bill that would’ve required gun owners to hold liability insurance.

Both of those measures had already passed the House, though the insurance measure cleared by the narrowest possible margin.

The study bill’s death was particularly grating to its House sponsors, Democratic Reps. Karen McCormick and Andy Boesenecker, because a similar bill died on the Senate’s calendar last year, too. House members have grumbled about the Senate’s calendar in recent days, and the study bill’s death further inflamed those frustrations Tuesday night.

But as the House gathered for the final day Wednesday morning, the emotions were different.

The day started with lawmakers paying tribute to departing colleagues  — those termed out or running for other offices. That included emotional support for Republican Rep. Rod Bockenfeld, who’s been absent for much of the session as he battles cancer; Bockenfeld appeared virtually to hear his colleagues tearfully thank him for his service.