There you have it, folks. That was the not-so-special session. It ended with a no vote by the State Senate, although, one could argue that it was over before it even began. The special session was meant to correct an error that left several government entities without funds from the marijuana taxes collected. From Senate President Grantham’s press release:
“This unfortunate waste of time and tax money could easily have been avoided if Governor Hickenlooper spent more time working in a bipartisan fashion in advance of calling the special session. Our opposition to this special session was well known to the Governor. He knew we had philosophical and constitutional questions about the so-called fix he was backing. More bipartisan consultation and pre-planning was needed to improve our chance of success. But he plowed ahead anyway, without adequately laying the groundwork for success.”
As we pointed out yesterday, according to Democrats (including those at the Denver Post), either Republican Senators do what Governor Hickenlooper says or they’re wrong. That’s not actually how this country or state was founded. Senate GOP told the Governor on numerous occasions that they were not comfortable with his attempt to end-run TABOR and vote in a de facto tax increase.
The only question left is how do we (taxpayers) get our $25,000 per day back?