April 07, 2009 12:42 AM UTC

SB 170 defeated in the Senate

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• by: Awen

(Bwok…Bwok….Bwok…. – promoted by Laughing Boy)

POLS UPDATE #2: Sen. Morgan Carroll blogs on her no vote:

I cannot support SB 170 in a climate where the state is cutting or eliminating over $1 billion of benefits to the people and is facing a $300 million cut to higher education, which virtually ends higher education as we know it in the State of Colorado.

The plight of children who have done nothing wrong nor know no other country as home is a real one but would not be solved by this bill because under current federal law they remain at risk for deportation and have no lawful path to employment.  Federal immigration reform is desperately needed to bring a real solution to this and many other problems.  The process for legal immigration in this country is broken and needs to be fixed.

SB 170 identifies a real problem but does not provide the solution.  I believe the bill is currently at odds with federal law and brings a real risk of the state being sued – and losing.

POLS UPDATE: As the Denver Post reports:

The Colorado Senate today narrowly rejected a bill that would have allowed illegal immigrants in-state tuition after five Democrats joined with Republicans to vote against it…

Controversy had followed the legislation, Senate Bill 170, from its introduction all the way to the Senate floor. The bill only made it out of the Senate Appropriations Committee last week after Democrats called a meeting in the absence of one Republican member on the committee, setting off angry accusations from GOP senators that Democrats had pulled a sneaky maneuver to get the bill approved.

Today, though, Democrats delayed debate on the bill long enough to allow Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D-Denver, to make it back from the airport to participate in the debate.

Sen. Ted Harvey, the Republican who was absent from last week’s appropriations committee meeting to care for an ailing family member, sarcastically applauded Democratic leadership for waiting for Veiga’s arrival.

“I think it’s great that we’re getting back to the premise of senatorial courtesy,” said Harvey, R-Highlands Ranch.

There many places to start post-morteming the failure of Senate Bill 170. First and foremost are the massive budget cuts proposed for higher education that came to light at the end of last week, which tremendously complicated any attempt to increase the burden on Colorado colleges–even if this bill ultimately wouldn’t have like proponents insisted. You can argue about the DREAM Act and the potential for federal dollars all you want to: you’re immediately set against the basic sensibilities of too many voters, who just heard the words “30% tuition increase.”

Second was the end run around Sen. Ted Harvey last week, which has been vigorously defended on dense procedural grounds, but with more of a grin today after they held up the whole Senate to politely await Sen. Jennifer Veiga (above story). We, um, don’t really mind seeing the majority roll like the majority gets to, but the story of that little maneuver was not exactly framing out well for the instigators–and on a hot-button issue like this it would have guaranteed controversy straight into the next election cycle.

Third? Well, you’ve got a Hispanic community that is already kind of, we don’t know of a nicer way to say this, used to being put out on the margins when the GOP’s always-ready rhetoric starts looking like it might have purchase. That really is the only way to explain, for example, certain Democrats who voted for this a couple of years ago and against it today. The politically expedient benefit outweighed the risk. It sucks, and it’s not political calculus we would depend on for very much longer. But it is what it is. Original post follows.

UPDATED: Five Democrats voted with the 13 Republicans: Linda Newell (Englewood), Lois Tochtrop (Adams County), Jim Isgar (Hesperus) and of course, Moe Keller. The final vote was 16-18. There was a Republican absent but I don’t know who.

The bill, as has been noted by others, would have provided instate tuition rates to undocumented high school students.

(and thanks to Droll who suggested updating the diary; I didn’t know I could until a few minutes ago.)