Closed meetings and backroom deals: Could Colorado’s special session test SB 157, lawmakers?

By Brian Eason | The Colorado Sun

When Colorado lawmakers in March made the first major changes to the state’s open meetings law since the 1990s, top Democrats promised it wouldn’t reduce government transparency.

“This bill is not attempting to create less transparency than we have today,” Senate President Steve Fenberg, a Boulder Democrat who sponsored the measure, said at the first committee hearing for Senate Bill 157.

But open government advocates say legislative Democrats earlier this month used the new law to do just that, barring news outlets from two caucus meetings where lawmakers discussed the prospect of a special session to reduce property taxes.

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