The Delta independent., 1923-03-09
Rockwell's Letter
Brief Synopsis Legislative Work To
Date
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average life OF Colorado Assembly
1t is not supposed that one hundred
men representing the the one hundred
| different parts of Colorado and all
professions and business conditions
can get together and start function
ing Immediately. AS a result of the
initiative law which compells all
bills to be introduced the first fifteen
days of the session, necessitating for
several days following the proper ar
rangement OF those thousand odd bills
in committees so that the members
may know legislation is pending, there
practically no work done outside of
committees during the first three
weeks of the session.
Some people seem to imagine that
Legislature should start passing bills
Immediately after they are organized.
My observation in the seven sessions
which have served convinces me that
the legislature that undertakes passing
or considering in the committee Of the
whole import pieces of legislation
without serious deliberation within
their committees and plenty of time
for discussion, they have much to ex-
plain after the Assembly closes.
There is much more danger of max
ing laws too fast and not allowing
sufficient time to investigate careful
ly than there is Of going too slowly.
In Colorado the regular sessions of
the Legislature are held only once in
two years and they average to last
about 100 days. The saving in dollars
as to whether the legislature closes
at the. end of 60 days as against 100
days is almost neglible. The mem
bers are paid $1,000 for two years
whether the legislature may be in ses-
sion thirty days or six months, and
the only additional expense is the cost
of employees and other incidentals.
There is scarcely a man in this AS
sembly who does not want this ses-
sion to be over as quickly as possible.
Most of them are business, profession
al men and farmers, who can i'll afford
to leave their work for even the three
months that they are elected to repre-
sent their districts in the legislature.
It would be much easier to take these
bills as introduced and pass them thru
without serious discussion but it does
not make for good legislation or good
laws. There has been altogether too
much of this done in the past,
therefore feel that the man who con-
tinues to urge his representatives to
pass this or that piece of legislation
without amendment or in a hurry does
not understand the proper functioning
of legislature.
The Twenty-Fourth General Assem-
bly, has its work well up to that of the
average assembly in the past for the
same period of time. Many pieces of
legislation upon which there is gener-
al understanding have been taken up
and either passed or rejected by one
House or the other. For instance. the
bill iegalizing the establishing of high
schools in districts of the third class,
which has passed the Senate and will
no doubt soon be considered by the
House; the repeal of the y mill levy
for roads which has passed the SEN
ate and is now before the House; the
raising of the gasoline tax from one
to two cents which has passed the
House and is now before the Senate,
the repeal of the part of the automo-
bile license law which allows the in
surance of X-License tags free of
charge for cars used for county. mum
icipal and state purposes, was practi-
cally unanimously desired, and has
passed both Houses. Besides there
have been perhaps 80 other bills hav-
ing to do with abolishing boards,
commissions, establishing Industrial
Bank, amending fish and game laws,
etc,
The more important pieces of legis-
lation, the water compact bills, the
cooperative marketing director bills,
the consolidation bills, must necessar-
lily be considered more at length, and
after every available opportunity has
been given for information within the
committee.
Three weeks ago the people Of the
San Juan Basin and other parts of
solutely convinced that these water
pacts should not be passed, as they
feared the antiquities in the Treaty
would result in great loss to Western
Colorado. Today these same people,
If can judge from the correspondence
have received, have realized the
difficulties in which Colorado finds
herself, due to the Supreme Court de-
cision which says that prior use of
waters shall be the controlling factor
in water adjustments without regard
to State boundaries, and further rea-
lie the apparent intention of the
States along the lower basin of the
Colorado River to file on the remain
ing water in that river. feel that with
proper safeguards to preserve suffi.
cient water for the estimated increase