DENVER – Being on opposite sides of the political fence, Telluride's two-man delegation to the Colorado Legislature had predictably different assessments of the 2006 General Assembly that ended Monday night.

Democrat Sen. Jim Isgar of Hesperus, in the majority party and chairman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Natural Resources and Energy, was the primary sponsor of nine Senate bills, all of which passed, and 19 House bills, all but two of which were successful.

"We were able to use Referendum C money to restore cuts to state programs and put $400 million into transportation and capital construction," said Isgar, referring to last November's special election in which voters agreed to relinquish five years worth of sales tax refunds to help Colorado recover from a three-year recession.

But to Republican Ray Rose of Montrose, the Democrats went on a spending spree without stashing anything away for a rainy day.

"I'm extremely disappointed in the lack of discipline as a legislative to say we will spend every single dime and yet tell the public 'We are taking good care of your money,'" Rose said. "To show no discipline to prepare for another downturn, knowing full well it will come again, is totally irresponsible."

Several measures were defeated during the 118-day session to create a savings account apart from the statutory requirement for a 4 percent reserve used for supplemental appropriations.

Rose had a 50 percent success rate on the six House and four Senate bills he sponsored. He was especially happy with two measures promoting the use of renewable energy in state-owned vehicles and buildings.

"It is important for the state to step up to the plate and put our money where our mouth is," Rose said. "We have got to begin moving away from our reliance on fossil fuels."

Isgar used a late bill (HB 1322) dealing with renewable energy to add $500,000 a year for the next three years to the Department of Agriculture's value-added grants program.

"I wanted to get some money out there so a group of farmers could come together and get some help to put these entities together," Isgar said.

Both Rose and Isgar supported – although not very enthusiastically – a bill mandating that 75 percent of all gasoline sold in Colorado between November and April contain at least 10 percent ethanol. They agreed Western Slope retailers have little access to the alternative fuels and needed exemptions to the statewide mandate.

The ethanol bill (SB 138) was one of the last passed before lawmakers adjourned. Gov. Bill Owens has 30 days from adjournment to act on the dozens of bills sent to his desk in the waning days of the session.

Isgar said his biggest disappointment of the session was his and Gunnison Rep. Kathleen Curry's decision to withdraw House Bill 1185, which was aimed at resolving the escalating dispute between surface landowners and mineral rights holders.

"At the end of the day, the homebuilders were just not going to back off the fact that they wanted compensation for all loss of value to all the affected property," Isgar said. "In the House, they were only talking about damages directly caused by drilling but then weren't willing to honor the agreement they made."

Isgar said agriculture groups were most hurt by the collapse of negations on HB 1185 because the industry had agreed to compensation for damages, negotiations for surface use agreements and a process that included an increased bonding requirement if an agreement could not be reached.

Rose was most disappointed with the defeat of his House Bill 1194, which would have allowed local pharmacies to match the price of mail-order maintenance drugs such as blood-pressure medicines. He said current law allows prescription benefit managers to control where members buy their drugs.

Isgar sponsored, and Rose supported, most of the major water bills approved by lawmakers this year. They included measures to:

-Limit future applications for recreational water rights.

-Enact a statewide charter for river basin roundtables that will direct planning for future water projects throughout the state.

-Create a $10 million a year fund to pay for feasibility and environmental studies for water projects that are approved by the roundtables. While lawmakers approved several bills using money from rapidly growing severance tax revenues, including the water projects bill, Isgar said local governments should not be concerned about losing funding for energy-impact grants.

"The people in the cities and counties still don't understand that this is not coming out of local funds," Isgar said. "The money in the operational account is not money that is going to the local government side. These are dollars that have always gone to (the Department of Natural Resources) and is in excess of what is needed for operations."