April 13, 2009 08:00 PM UTC

The Pinnacol saga continues....

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• by: allyncooper

( – promoted by Colorado Pols)

POLS UPDATE: Liberal activist group Progress Now released a blistering statement a few minutes ago, calling on Pinnacol to “stop stonewalling Colorado.” Says Director Mike Huttner, “It is plain wrong that Pinnacol Assurance, an entity chartered by the state, refuses to act in good faith to help lawmakers solve Colorado’s budget crisis. Pinnacol, aided by high-powered lobbyists, is misrepresenting itself in order to hoard hundreds of millions of dollars in excess revenue it is essentially sitting on for no justifiable purpose.”

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Just got back from the state capitol where the proposal to use $500 million in excess funds from Pinnacol reserves to fund higher ed is being debated outside, inside, and behind closed doors.

Opponents of SB 09-273 and SB 09-281 held a rally on the west side of the capitol at 9 am vociferously denouncing the plan. (For those of you who still read print media, there was a full page ad yesterday in the Denver Post opposing the bills and drumming up support for the rally.)

Three legislators spoke against the Pinnacol plan, including Democrat Rep. Joe Rice of Littleton. Rice issued the predominately partisan crowd a challenge to work to solve the education funding crisis, because its in everybody’s best interest to do so.

Inside the capitol, meetings were being held in anticipation of the third reading vote scheduled today. I talked to my State Senator who had just been in one such meeting, and despite questions raised about the legality and the possibilities of lawsuits, her response was that they had good legal opinions that what they were doing was legally sustainable.  

I also ran into a member of the House in a leadership position and posed the same questions to him about the bills, and again his response indicated to me they have been hard at work to make this thing acceptable, and he indicated the proponents felt they were on legally defensible grounds.

It ain’t over till the fat lady sings, and the only thing assured on this very contentious issue is that the fat lady may be waiting in the wings for a while.