GRANADA, Colo. — Colorado state Rep. Wes McKinley says he got tired of fellow lawmakers voting to pass bills that hurt his rural constituents, like the one requiring ranchers to take care of wild cats, or another requiring butchering animals to be kept in bigger pens.
So last weekend he invited his colleagues to come see part of the real West — the southeastern plains. A half dozen took him up on the offer, riding the range and helping with a cattle drive.
“I told them if they’re going to vote on western issues, they need to understand western issues,” said McKinley, a rancher and former outfitter from Walsh, an agricultural town of 4,000 about 220 miles southeast of Denver.
The cat care bill passed the House Local Government Committee but died on the House floor. The animal care act requiring larger pens became law, but only after pregnant sows were given an exemption.
“They didn’t realize that sows eat their babies,” McKinley said.
The visiting lawmakers talked with about 200 area residents about the local way of life, then took a six-mile horseback ride, along with wagons and a stagecoach, to inspect a bridge built in 1936 under the Works Progress Administration. It carries traffic over Two Butte Creek, which is now dry.
Residents pointed to the gully and told the legislators they don’t understand recent agreements between Colorado and Kansas that give Kansas more water while their own land lies fallow. Lawmakers said it’s federal law and there is little they can do.
McKinley, a Democrat, said many laws passed in Denver have unintended consequences on the range.
“They wanted to pass a law saying you couldn’t keep a veal calf in a pen so small he couldn’t lay down and turn around,” he told farmers and ranchers at a campfire meeting after the trail ride.
“I asked them what’s a veal calf, and nobody knew. They said don’t worry about it because there was no veal industry in Colorado. I said this could be my favorite bill, because we passed a law on a subject they knew nothing about for something we can’t define,” McKinley recalled.
The Colorado Department of Agriculture says there’s no veal industry in Colorado because calves are raised for the dairy industry and bulls in the West are worth more when they’re grown.
McKinley said a woman from Denver who was not a constituent wanted to have him arrested for animal cruelty after lawmakers tried to pass a bill requiring people to take care of stray cats on their property and put computer chips in them so they could be identified. McKinley had opposed the bill, arguing feral cats are often shot to prevent spreading disease onto ranches.
Local authorities shrugged off the woman’s complaint.
“I’m the only legislator who’s been cleared of animal cruelty charges,” McKinley said as he strummed a guitar.
Pat Palmer, a businessman who helped organize the trail ride, said rural areas have trouble getting tourism funding from the state. The trail ride was an opportunity to showcase the region’s need for economic development.
“We want people to see our way of life. We want to be something more than just a potty stop on the Santa Fe Trail,” he said.
Pat Manning, a Denver-area media consultant, took the opportunity to lobby Rep. Jeanne Labuda, a Denver Democrat, for a bill that would bar the federal government from buying or leasing land to expand an Army training site around scenic Pinon Canyon. Pointing to the tundralike grass, she said tanks and military vehicles could cause permanent damage to the Eastern Plains.
Labuda replied it wasn’t that simple: Lawmakers have to balance local needs with other areas of the state and the nation.
“These are tough choices. My heart is here, but my heart is also with state officials and with the military,” she told Manning.
Jillane Hixson, a computer analyst from nearby Lamar, complained at the campfire dinner that lawmakers had ruined farmers and ranchers who took advantage of a state program allowing them to sell conservation easements on their land to protect it from development while they continue farming and ranching.
Hixson said three ranchers are nearly bankrupt after the state put the brakes on the program following allegations of fraud and a grand jury investigation. She said the program cost her $80,000 for attorneys and appraisers, and the state is demanding she repay the tax credits she received with penalties and interest on 150 acres in conservation easements she sold to other investors. She said she may have to sell her 3,000-acre farm to pay back the money to the state. The others, she said, face the same dilemma.
“The money is gone,” Hixson said.
Rep. Jim Kerr, R-Littleton, told Hixson he understood her frustration but that there is little the state can do while the investigation is ongoing.
Kerr called the trail ride a good opportunity to see local issues firsthand — and to realize that laws that look good on paper can take on a whole new meaning for the wide open spaces.
“A lot of these laws can have unintended consequences,” he said.
Assistant House Majority Leader Andy Kerr, D-Lakewood, said he saw a wind power generation farm, which has been a priority this year at the Legislature, while riding back to the ranch.
“This shows what we’re doing at the Capitol is already having an impact on rural Colorado,” he said.
Rep. Frank McNulty, a Republican from Highlands Ranch, said lawmakers have to start somewhere.
“What did I learn? I learned how to ride a horse,” he said.
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