Colorado Rep. Tim Geitner spoke at the July 6 meeting of the Eastern Plains Chamber of Commerce. Geitner represents District 19, which includes eastern El Paso County and portions of Douglas, Elbert and Lincoln counties.Before talking about specific issues and answering questions, Geitner presented chamber members with a brief civics lesson. He said there are 65 seats in the Colorado House of Representatives and 35 seats in the Colorado Senate. Democrats have the majority in both houses at this time. There are three numbers necessary for a bill to become a law, Geitner said. A bill requires 33 votes in the House and 18 votes in the Senate plus one signature from the governor.Geitner said this year has been especially busy since legislative activity was curtailed last year because of COVID 19. He discussed Senate Bill 21-260, which is related to transportation funding, including rail and bus systems. The bill was passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor. He said most of the funding for the bill is from four new fees and some existing fees. One major source of funding is a fee on retail delivery, including food deliveries that have significantly increased since COVID 19. A good portion of the bill promotes the use of electric vehicles. Geitner expressed his disapproval of government subsidies for electric vehicles ó 99.97% of the vehicles in Colorado are not electric, he said.He also discussed House Bill 21-1232, aimed at reducing health care costs. The bill has been passed by the Legislature and signed into law by the governor. As originally proposed, Geitner said the bill was ìnot business friendlyî because it penalized doctors for charging higher than an established rate. Before this portion of the bill was killed, he said there was talk of doctors leaving the state.Geitner said he was associated with two consequential bills. One regulated e-learning, increasingly important because of COVID 19. The bill, House Bill 21-1059, which was signed into law by the governor, provides protection for students who participate in online instruction.The second was House Bill 1317, which regulates medical marijuana ó has also been signed into law by the governor. The bill prevents the system of ìlooping.î Prior to the bill, a person who had a card to purchase medical marijuana could go to several stores in one day and purchase the daily legal limit at each store. Now, each sale is recorded in real time rather than waiting until the end of the day, ensuring there is only one maximum daily legal purchase per day.Geitner answered questions from the audience.Someone asked about generators for electric car charging facilities, and Geitner said there has not been a conversation about requiring generators for those facilities.Geitner also mentioned Mountain View Electric Association’s new broadband internet system. ìI look at broadband very much as the digital road of today,î he said. He noted that commerce, education and medicine are benefited by good broadband internet service.He also mentioned the new fee for using plastic bags for shopping. He said the money collected will go to the state for recycling programs.ìColorado was the most gerrymandered of all 50 states,î Geitner said. He said new legislative district lines were being drawn up as a result of the most recent census. There will be no additional seats, but the number of people in each district will increase as boundary lines are redrawn. While preliminary maps are out now, he said there is still work to be done before district lines are finalized, which he predicted would take place in September.ìThere are a lot of changes coming to assessment values,î Geitner said. He predicted there would be changes to senior homestead exemptions, based on the person’s income.The next chamber meeting is Aug. 4 at 7 a.m. at Grace Community Church, 9486 Grace Church View.
