February 10, 2012 09:03 PM UTC

Senate Floor Debate on Colorado ASSET Bill Underway

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• by: Colorado Pols

UPDATE: Senate Bill 12-015 wins Senate passage on a party-line vote.

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This year’s legislation establishing a better tuition rate for undocumented students, Senate Bill 12-015, is being debated now on the floor of the Colorado Senate. It’s expected to pass the Senate before meeting its true test in the narrowly GOP-controlled House, but Sen. Scott Renfroe took the floor moments ago to register his unhappiness with the way he was apparently treated back in Senate committee hearings in late January–Ed News Colorado reported then:

The result wasn’t in doubt – four Democrats voted yes and three Republicans voted no – but SB 12-015 got a full hearing in Senate Education…

Things got a little testy late in the hearing, as King questioned the fiscal note produced by legislative analyst Josh Abram and Renfroe objected hotly to use of the word “stupid” by Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder. Heath, who said the bill makes sense just from an economic development point of view, had said, “How stupid can we be” not to see the economic benefits. Renfroe demanded an apology, but Heath didn’t reply.

Tantrums aside–and sorry, objectively speaking Sen. Renfroe really is not the sharpest knife in the drawer–as we said, the real test awaiting SB015 is the House, where GOP House Education Committee chairman Rep. Tom Massey has said he would support the bill. The question therefore is squarely up to Speaker Frank McNulty: whether to send the bill to Massey’s committee, which is where it was sent last year, or a “kill committee” of his choosing like the dreaded House State, Veterans, and Military Affairs Committee.

The latter, obviously, would be a act of bad faith against more than the Democrats.