Vetoed Bills

Every year, the governor chooses to veto a few of the bills that were passed. A veto occurs when the bill is passed by both House and Senate, is signed by the Speaker of the House and the President of the Senate, and is referred to the Governor for his signature — but if he doesn’t like the bill, he has the option to veto it. Curiously, this year, all but one of Governor Ritter’s vetos were on bills sponsored by his fellow Democrats. They were also all House Bills. Here are the 2008 bills that were vetoed:

• HB1032 by Rep. Massey and Sen. Morse, “Concerning a change in payments to pharmacies for certain drugs under Medicaid.”
• HB1150 by Rep. Todd and Sen. Williams, “Concerning a program for providing additional therapies to persons with disabilities who are eligible to receive Medicaid.”
• HB1170 by Rep. Soper and Sen. Tochtrop, “Concerning the regulation of electricians, and making an appropriation therefor.”
• HB1186 by Rep. Solano and Sen. Windels, “Concerning the exception of certain students’ scores from calculations of a school’s academic performance.”
• HB1208 by Rep. Levy and Sen. Shaffer, “Concerning juveniles against whom charges are directly filed in a district court.”
• HB1406 by Rep. Madden and Sen. Gordon, “Concerning the circulation of initiative and referendum petitions.”
• HB1408 by Rep. Levy and Sen. Veiga, “Concerning the implementation of additional requirements on a corporate income taxpayer to verify the validity of transactions related to real estate investment trusts.”

So why were these bills vetoed? They all obviously had a lot of support. To find the governor’s reasons for vetoing each of these bills, visit his press releases page. There will be a separate Veto Message for each bill. Veto Messages are letters written by the govenor explaining to Coloradans why he vetoed each bill. You can view all bills and acts, as well as bill histories, House and Senate Journals, and archived video of the House floor debates, on the General Assembly’s homepage.