February 03, 2011 11:24 PM UTC

Time For McNulty to Keep His Promise?

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• by: Colorado Pols

The Craig Daily Press reported Tuesday on yet another FASTER-undoing bill, this one from Rep. Randy Baumgardner–you’ll recall that GOP House Speaker Frank McNulty has basically ruled the repeal of FASTER, and its badly-needed, already bonded revenue for transportation projects, a nonstarter despite it playing a central role in many Republican legislative campaigns last year.

The Republican from Hot Sulphur Springs, along with other House Representatives, introduced Colorado House Bill 11-1084 on Jan. 20. Baumgardner is the prime House sponsor of the bill, which has been sent to the House Committee on Transportation.

The bill aims to repeal a late vehicle registration fee enacted through Senate Bill 09-108, also known as FASTER, and would reinstate the optional $10 late fee, credited to county governments, previously in effect.

And Baumgardner’s HB11-1084 passed the House Transportation Committee a short while ago today on a party-line vote. This would appear to set up a challenge for Speaker McNulty–is he a man of his word? Is he willing to follow through on his promises to set aside…well, even set aside his own campaign plank, and that of freshman representatives like Kathleen Conti who pounded the issue all the way into office? Because that’s what he said he’d do, right?

It goes without saying that the best choice would have been to not make campaign promises you either can’t or never intended to keep, but clearly we and Speaker McNulty are past that. It wouldn’t take much effort for McNulty to see that this bill, with no chance of survival anywhere but the House, dies quickly; if that’s what he wants. And if that’s not what he wants, he’s got a bit of a truthfulness problem–and people more formidable than Kathleen Conti to answer to…