Capitol Coverage: Hickenlooper Talks Post Session

Governor Hickenlooper says this year’s legislative session was the most productive of his seven years in office. But as our statehouse reporter Bente Birkeland reports – he’s contemplating a special legislative session to tackle transportation…

The major bipartisan transportation package of the session failed – despite the backing of the Governor and legislative leaders in both parties. And Hickenlooper says a separate, expansive bill that also adds more money for roads, won’t fill the roughly 9 billion-dollar shortfall over the next decade.

We’re not even going to have enough money to fix I-25 north and south and I-70, let alone all the projects across the state.

The Governor says he’s also befuddled that the lawmakers couldn’t agree on how to fund the state’s energy office. The measure failed on the last day of the legislative session over a disagreemt about the role of renewable and traditional energy inside the office.

We are now the only state in the western United States that doesn’t have an energy office. How does that reflect us as being a leader?

Hickenelooper says those are two issues he’d like to address in a special session. He says he’ll make a decision by Monday.