Three Takeaways From Our Interview With Senate President Kevin Grantham

Republican Senate President Kevin Grantham is term limited and sat down with statehouse reporter Bente Birkeland to discuss his focus for his final legislative session.

On the issues he hopes to tackle:

Grantham: "Transportation is going to be key again to see what we can try to get done, to try to get through a split legislature to try to get the funding to bond money to get some of the big projects done. So that will be another battle that we'll have this year. There's a good chance with some of the information that we got from the December revenue forecast, it appears we'll have some extract cash, so to speak, to put towards our needs when it comes to transportation. So we're going to work with the House and governor's office to see if we can reprioritize some of that money."

On why he thinks that, despite being an election year, a lot can get done:

Grantham: "The issues that present themselves are bigger than the election. I think we see recognition from all factors that we need to get something done. I am actually optimistic that we can get something done on each of these. The fact is we actually have to get something done. We'll see how that plays out in the internal politics."

On how he's not sure how sexual harassment allegations will impact the session and whether we need more transparency:

Grantham: "We put in place the human resources officer and put in place the third party to come in and analyze policy. I think we set things in place in a bipartisan fashion that will help us move down the road so that we can actually accomplish things from a policy level. … In trying to protect the accuser and the accused, how would that play out in the real world? How would that play out in the corporate environment? We want to make sure we protect reputations on both sides."

Capitol Coverage is a collaborative public policy reporting project, providing news and analysis to communities across Colorado for more than a decade. Fifteen public radio stations participate in Capitol Coverage from throughout Colorado.