‘Value Ideology Differences’ Marked the 2015 Session Says Speaker of the House Hullinghorst

“It’s been lots of fun.” That’s how Dickey Lee Hullinghorst, Speaker of the Colorado House of Representatives, characterizes the role she played during the 2015 legislative session. In an interview with Catherine Strode, State Representative Hullinghorst (D-10) acknowledged that fewer bills were passed this Session as compared to last, but says she is proud of the legislature’s bipartisan work results.

It’s estimated that roughly 50 to 100 bills less were passed this Session as compared to last Session. Do you think less bills being passed this Session is a reflection of the split legislature?

“Yes. It’s very much a reflection of that. I believe that was the case in 2011-2012, when we also had split bodies. We had a minority in the House and a majority in the Senate. It was just the reverse of what it is now. There are any number of ills that represent various values that get killed in committee because we disagree. For instance, there were quite a few bills that we killed in the House that related to turning back the clock on what we had done on gun safety, to repeal the gun safety bills, to enact personhood. We still get many of those and I call those, at least on the Republican side, value ideology bills. We have no basis for compromise or agreement to a large extent and those are the ones that die. What they killed on our part were, I think, much more reasonable that should have been passed. Minimum wage, equal pay for equal work, a study on discrimination in job: those kinds of issues that you would define more as democratic value issues that they don’t agree with.”

The Governor has said one of his greatest disappointments of the Session was the failure to pass funding for LARC (long-lasting reversible contraception). Do you agree?

“Yes. That goes straight to values because that was a tremendously successful program. It reduced teen pregnancies, reduced abortions, was highly cost effective, and would be a small amount of money compared to what you put into serving teen pregnancies and the issues of poverty around all of that. Birth control is abortion to some of those folks. Or, they don’t believe in giving birth control to poor people in the state. They think they should be able to pay for that themselves.”

How did you manage, then, to come together on some significant legislation?

“We have a very cordial relationship, the leadership. That’s really traditional. I mean we’re friends. Then, we agree to disagree. That’s what we did on these bills we killed on both sides. Sometimes we get a little testy about that, but for the most part, it’s how we manage to govern. I think we all had a little bit of trouble to start off with this year on one of the budget bills which was the JBC issue where there was a Supplemental that would have added existing fees to the undocumented licensing (where you could get your driver’s license as an undocumented). It was considered a very important public safety piece. They didn’t even want to fund the fees that were already collected to do that. We had some parliamentary procedure things that went wrong and we were fighting about that. We got together and agreed that there’s a better way to solve these kinds of issues. And if we don’t do that, it’s going to be a really rough year getting the budget passed and the things we have to get done. We came to an understanding to disagree but not to be disagreeable. Then, there were many things we could come together on. The 350 bills, by definition, are all non-partisan.”

How would you sum up what you believe to be your greatest achievement this Session?

“For me, just getting through the year as the Speaker. I enjoyed wielding the power and getting things done. We did get quite a few things done in spite of the split chambers. That I consider my greatest achievement. We have a good budget. We have a good School Finance Act. We came together on school testing and assessments. I think we got a great compromise and that was bipartisan. It took all Session and it took some strong leadership on everybody’s part. I’m very proud of that. We did get some very strong bipartisan workforce development bills passed. It was one of our priorities to help and broaden the middle class. That was with strong bipartisan effort. I put those at the top of the accomplishments because I think they were really important. They brought us together on a lot of issues.“

What is your biggest disappointment of the Session?

“My biggest disappointment is not getting the Hospital Provider Fee Enterprise established because that is going to put us, in what I would predict, is a budget crisis next year and in the years to follow if we don’t get that solved.”