XPost: alt.fan.rush-limbaugh, alt.politics.homosexuality, sac.politics   
   XPost: talk.politics.guns   
   From: colorado@fag.state   
      
   "Trump - Inmate Number P01135809"  wrote in   
   news:uja8ja$3a2b6$1@dont-email.me:   
      
   > Dope and queer embracing Colorado deserves every bad thing that   
   > happens to it and they should not be bailed out by the rest of the   
   > nation.   
      
   The Colorado Senate briefly devolved into political chaos Friday night   
   as the chamber’s Democratic majority blocked a Republican attempt to   
   force the state’s special legislative session on property tax relief to   
   stretch well into next week in protest of the policies moving through   
   the Capitol.   
      
   There were accusations of bad-faith negotiations and parliamentary   
   maneuvering and pleas to let lawmakers and staff spend Thanksgiving with   
   their families.   
      
   “I’m exhausted,” the normally affable Senate President Steve Fenberg,   
   D-Boulder, said in a speech on the Senate floor. “This is exhausting.”   
      
   The situation underscored the property tax pressure facing state   
   lawmakers as they rush to pass legislation before rates are locked for   
   the 2023 tax year in mid-to-late December, when local governments must   
   set their budgets and send out tax bills early next year. Gov. Jared   
   Polis called the session after voters last week rejected Proposition HH,   
   forcing Democrats to quickly come up with a Plan B or let home values   
   that have risen by a median of 40% statewide cause large increases in   
   people’s tax bills.   
      
   “What we’re doing now is already pushing the envelope,” Fenberg said as   
   he tried to navigate the drama.   
      
   The unease began Friday morning, shortly after the special session   
   gaveled in. Senate Republicans objected to Democrats’ attempt to suspend   
   rules in the chamber dictating how fast legislation can advance.   
      
   If the rules aren’t suspended with three days’ notice, two-thirds of the   
   Senate must vote to waive them.   
      
   Motions to suspend the rules frequently pass without contention, but the   
   GOP saw the rules as a way to make Democrats come to the property tax   
   negotiating table. If the motion to suspend the rules failed, it would   
   have forced the session to last until at least Tuesday rather than wrap   
   up Sunday.   
      
   The Senate GOP caucus waited until after the session began to lodge   
   their complaint, which angered Democrats who said Republicans had known   
   for days how the majority planned to proceed.   
      
   Democrats warned that extending the session could make it difficult for   
   local governments to implement any property tax relief the legislature   
   passes. Republicans said the delay would ensure that Coloradans had time   
   to understand the policies unveiled Thursday that lawmakers are   
   debating.   
      
   Those proposals include not just property tax relief, as Republicans   
   prefer, but also a $185 million expansion of a tax credit for low-income   
   working families and $30 million for rental assistance for people facing   
   eviction.   
      
   When the Senate voted Friday evening on whether to suspend the rules,   
   the 12 Republicans in the chamber requested a roll-call vote and voted   
   in unison to block the motion. All 23 Senate Democrats voted for the   
   suspension, but it wasn’t enough to meet the two-thirds threshold.   
      
   Democrats then asked that the vote be redone, but before Republicans   
   could ask that a roll-call vote be taken, Fenberg quickly called   
   initiated a voice vote — in which senators holler out “aye” or “no” —   
   and ruled that the motion passed.   
      
   Stunned Republicans objected — “sorry, those are the rules,” Fenberg   
   replied — eventually asking the Senate to formally vote on an appeal of   
   how Fenberg handled the situation. The appeal failed along party lines.   
      
   Republican Sen. Mark Baisley of Woodland Park, speaking in a tense   
   gathering of lawmakers on the Senate floor, complained that he hadn’t   
   heard Fenberg call for the vote. Fenberg shrugged and told Baisley he   
   should have been paying closer attention.   
      
   Republican Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, 65, told her caucus that Fenberg had   
   a “temper tantrum” and said she didn’t like being lectured to by a man   
   in his late 30s. Fenberg, 39, accused Republicans of political theater   
   and said they violated commitments they had made earlier in the week   
   when Democrats shared their special session agenda and calendar. He said   
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
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