Republican Gov. Bill Owens on Friday vetoed 18 bills – angering Democratic lawmakers who had proposed legislation intended to make health care more affordable, education more accessible and workplaces safer.
Owens rejected bills that would have boosted ethanol sales in the state and created committees to study the state’s education system from preschool through college.
The sweeping range of the vetoes shows that the governor is still in the driver’s seat when setting key policies for the state despite a Democratic takeover of the legislature two years ago.
That is the largest number of vetoes Owens has ever issued in a single day and raises the total number of bills vetoed this session to 32. He also has used his line-item veto power on three budget bills. Last year, Owens vetoed 47 bills.
To top Democratic leaders in the legislature, the vetoes are proof they need a Democratic governor to enact changes.
“Bill Owens provided a pretty good argument for Bill Ritter,” House Speaker Andrew Romanoff, D-Denver, said of the party’s gubernatorial candidate.
“November now looms larger for a lot of reasons, especially in solving the health care crisis,” Romanoff said. “Every month that passes, some Coloradans will be forced to choose filling their refrigerator or filling their medicine cabinet or filling their gas tank, and that’s an unhappy choice.”
Owens vetoed one of the Democrats’ top bills of the session on Friday by rejecting Senate Bill 1, a measure that called for the state to join other states in purchasing prescription drugs at a discount by buying in bulk.
In his veto message, the governor said he was concerned that the proposal would create “a massive new government pharmaceutical program” and could force physicians to divert time away from patients to deal with “bureaucratic red tape.”
Five of the 18 bills were related to health care. In addition to the prescription-drug plan, Owens rejected bills that would have:
Required health insurers to allow customers to cover their grandchildren in certain cases;
Allowed communities to set up special “health assurance districts” that could levy sales and property taxes;
Encouraged health-related degrees in higher education to include coursework on cultural awareness;
Mandated terms that must be included in contracts between health care providers and insurers.
Owens continued to serve as a vigilant watchdog for bills that he considered hurting the economic climate of the state.
“I think the message is the same as last year,” said Owens spokesman Dan Hopkins. “He certainly watches for things like overregulation. He watches for bills that are anti-business.”
Indeed, the batch of vetoes on Friday included bills that would have required state regulation of the mortuary-science profession, landscape architects, athletic trainers, and public elevators and escalators.
Owens rejected a bill that would have prohibited employers from requiring workers to attend meetings regarding “religious or political matters” and another bill that would have barred workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation.
Sen. Jennifer Veiga, D- Denver, said she expected the veto on the sexual-orientation bill – Owens blocked a similar measure last year – but she remained disappointed.
“I got to tell you that I expected it, but I’m still really irritated,” Veiga said.
And Owens was aware of the political implications of some of the vetoes.
In his message vetoing a bill that would have required the monitoring of state contractors, Owens wrote: “While it is politically popular in this election year to criticize outsourcing – and Colorado’s labor unions have been tireless in so doing – in fact Colorado’s taxpayers deserve the best product at the lowest price, even if it is produced in, say, Kansas or Ohio.”
The complete text of Gov. Bill Owens’ veto messages is available online at colorado.gov/governor/press-office.html.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
