Hello Friends,

Monday

We started the week with a tribute to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Since we have overall only a 42 - 45% high school graduation rate of Hispanics and African Americans in Colorado, I am looking forward to the day when all parents and students can choose their school - private, charter or public. Currently, many
parents are unable to choose a better public school for their children, and do not have the money to enroll them in private schools. It is the children who suffer the most from this lack of choice.

Tuesday

We started with a men's Bible study at 7:30 a.m., conducted by Capitol Ministries and led by Pastor Dan File, at no cost to the taxpayers. Pastor File strongly encouraged us to "read through the Bible" in a year and gave us a pamphlet to guide us. I started "reading the Bible through" a few years ago. I think that it is a great thing to do and a great way to start the day. If everyone would practice God's principles from the Bible, we would have a much better society. Just think if everyone loved each other as much as God loves us.

We had our first meeting on the "Local Government" Committee. I was able to spend most of the day getting organized (still moving into my office), and working on the bills that I am carrying. One is to reduce the number of bills that Senators and Representatives can carry from 5 to 4, and the other is to reduce the time we are in session from 120 days to 90 days.

My Aide, Dana Geter, will be a great help to me this session. She is a talented
and enthusiastic college student from Fort Collins. She is planning a career in political science and she loves working at the Capitol.

Wednesday

The house voted 49-14-2 to take about $35 - 45 million from our future tobacco tax that was just passed by the voters to spend it on Medicaid for legal immigrants. I was a NO vote for several reasons: this expense should be part of our overall budget; we don't yet know how much money we will receive from the
tobacco tax; and the voters didn't know that this money would be spend on Medicaid.

Our state Medicaid budget is almost $1.9 billion now and is about 23% of our state budget. One of the requirements of immigration should be an applicant's
ability to pay for their own medical expenses once they arrive in this country. There should be adequate screening in place to make sure that only the legal immigrants with genuine need receive medical assistance.

Thursday

I killed my bill in the Transportation and Energy Committee on "yield right of way penalties increasing" at the request of the three motorcycle clubs in Colorado. I was carrying this on their behalf. They realized that it would have a fiscal impact
and wanted it pulled.

I met with Judith Stokes, who is a leading person in Colorado's "on-line schools." Many people don't realize how "on-line schools" work. Let me give you a brief
explanation. In 1998, a bill was passed allowing "on-line schools" to exist. These schools are set up for those parents that want their children taught at home due to factors such as bullying, travel distance, and a safer and better
learning climate at home. The student must attend a public school for one semester first and then ask to be enrolled in an "on-line" school. The local school district will allocate $5,600 per year for this student for a computer at home (owned by the school district), an internet hook up, on-line instructional material, and a teacher from a remote location in Colorado. In 2000, there were three schools in Colorado; now there are 25 with about 5,000 students. In fact, the largest school in Colorado is an on-line school with over 2,000 students. If you want to learn more about "on-line schools," go www.k12.com. This is an excellent Web site. Considering the fact that Colorado spent $7,428 per pupil in 2002-2003 (National Education Association Rankings & Estimates, Update Fall 2003, Table 5), we can now educate students for about $1800 less with on-line schools. Representative Kevin Lundberg and I estimate that in the future, this cost could drop an additional $1000!

In the evening, I attended a CUT meeting (Colorado Union of Taxpayers - www.coloradotax.org). Senators Mark Hillman (R), Ken Gordon (D), and Representative Kevin Lundberg (R) each spoke for about 10 minutes and then opened it up for questions. Senator Hillman pointed out that in 1976-77, the "revenue as a percent of personal income" for taxpayers in Colorado was 8.7%.
In 1986-87, it was 6.8% and now it is 5.6%. This shows how our government can become more efficient as our population and economy grows.

Friday

We adjourned from the House floor at 10:30, allowing us to meet with constituents and work on our bills.

Would you take a minute to e-mail me your opinion on two bills that are coming up?

1) Should car dealers be allowed to open on Sundays? Almost all car dealers want to stay closed and many people like to shop around car lots without sales people being present. If the law is changed to give them the right to open on Sundays, I have been told that their franchise agreements state that they must
open on Sundays

2) Should liquor stores be allowed to be open on Sundays?

I value your opinions on these bills. Thank you for your help! As I have stated before, please feel free to email me, write to me, call me, or come to visit me at your Capitol. I love to see visitors from Loveland! Thank you for your prayers and I wish God's blessings on you and our great
country.

Respectfully,
Rep. Jim Welker
House District 51