Station:    KNUS, 710 am

Show:       Chuck & Julie Show

Guests:    Neville, Tim

Link:        https://chuckandjulie.podbean.com/

Date:        June 8, 2018

Topics:     Pro

Click Here for Audio

HOST JULIE HAYDEN: [00:00:02] Well, let’s start with State Senator Tim Neville. First of all, Tim, thank you for your time. [We] appreciate it.

COLORADO STATE SENATOR FROM DISTRICT 15, TIM NEVILLE: [00:00:07] Oh you bet. How are you guys doing?

HOST JULIE HAYDEN: [00:00:09] We’re good, we’re good! I’m assuming you’re down here [at the Colorado Convention Center] somewhere, or are you going to be down here sooner or later? Or are you busy out there somewhere else.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:00:15] Well, actually I’ve been walking [inaudible]. So, I’m busy.

HAYDEN: [00:00:19] All right.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:00:21] It’s campaign season.

HOST CHUCK BONNIWELL: [00:00:21] I gotcha.

HAYDEN: [00:00:21] Yeah, really! [We] wanted to touch bases, and to see what on earth is going on with Governor John Hickenlooper. So, the Colorado legislature passed some bipartisan legislation that I understand you guys had been working on for a while, regarding some marijuana issues; one, a tasting room, and then another one–.

BONNIWELL: [00:00:38] Autism — yeah.

HAYDEN: [00:00:38] Autism — [marijuana] to be used sort of medicinally for kids with autism. And–.

BONNIWELL: [00:00:41] And then making publicly held companies be able to go in the field. Bad idea! [inaudible].

HAYDEN: [00:00:51] And then out of the blue, the Governor vetoed them. Were you guys expecting that, or how did that all come about?

TIM NEVILLE: [00:00:57] No, actually we weren’t expecting vetoes. It’s a little bit frustrating because on all of those bills — I mean, I was a sponsor on two of those bills the public traded companies and the tasting room bill. And we’ve been working with the — all the stakeholders — had been working with the governor’s office on this, or the Department of Revenue, or NED. In a case of that the tasting room bill, that that was being worked on for the last four years to try to get to a position–. And you know how it usually works with governmental agencies. You can get them to neutral. That’s about the best you’re going to do. They don’t like change. So, we were able to do that with NED, to get them to neutral. And, so, yeah, we were a little bit blindsided, I believe, at the end here.

HAYDEN: [00:01:42] Well, and is it– I’m assuming, too, it wasn’t like, secret– right? — that you guys were working on this. If you’re the governor — Governor John Hickenlooper’s office — I mean, they have liaisons, they have people who could have certainly known that that was going on.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:01:55] That’s correct Julie. And usually somebody will visit you from the governor’s office and say, “We have a problem here,” or “We have a problem there.” What I’ve noticed in the last year or two is one of those situations where we don’t get those visits from the governor’s office, or we don’t get those concerns. And then all of a sudden at the last moment, it’s a question of, you knowm who sort of jumps onto the bandwagon. And my frustration this year is that, you know, that you have a few people that say, “Well, we we don’t like this,” or, “We don’t like that,” [and], I mean, what is their political clout out there, I guess, when they go to the governor’s office? And, you know, is it enough to, you know, basically instead of trying to focus on, you know, the legislative process, they they sort of circumvent that. And the governor seems willing to take a look and — you know, the frustration on the three bills — these — I think all three bills were bills that moved us forward — may not have been perfect, but move this forward in key areas. And you know, the governor chose to kick the can down the road, instead, and leave it up to somebody else to deal with the problems.

BONNIWELL: [00:02:58] Well, you had to have the Speaker of the House — the Democrats — to get a pass there. I mean, you know, I lobbied down the Capitol a decade and a half ago. And when we had bills, I’d go over and see the governor, or somebody else would. It’s shocking that — Hick[enlooper]–. I can see him trashing you. You know, you’re in the other party. But his own party?

TIM NEVILLE: [00:03:14] [laughs].

HAYDEN: [00:03:16] Well, and then she pointed out some–. A person who was skeptical might wonder why would John Hickenlooper –what his actual motives were for veto. I mean, he’s at the Bilderberger meeting, which is weird. That just sounds somehow evil-scientist-y, or something like that. But do you think — could this be, perhaps, a precursor to him wanting to run for higher office and deciding to sort of, you know, slam over the citizens of Colorado in an effort to appear more centrist on a national level.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:03:47] Do you think? I was commenting to somebody the other day, and they asked me what was going on with the governor. I said, “I don’t know.” I said, “I’m glad that the governor wasn’t King Solomon, or the baby might have been split.”

BONNIWELL: [00:03:57] [laughs] Well, it is kind of amazing. I mean, how would you rate the session overall from the Republican side? You know, we had the folks from Principles of Liberty. They weren’t too kind to the Senate Republicans, gave you mostly ‘Fs’. I think you got a D+.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:04:19] Yeah! I got a D+! I’m usually one of the top two or three on POL. But I have to say, POL does — you know, does what they do. And I respect them trying to go in and, you know, rate so many bills. And there were a tremendous amount of moving parts on all these bills. I was looking through the Senate bills — the Senate rating — and I’m thinking, you know, “Wow! D+? Hmm.” So I was looking through and I — some of the bills that we disagreed on was Senate Bill 61 — Reduction of the State Income Tax. And I couldn’t figure out when they came out in opposition to that. You know, there was one — I mean, some of the other ones you kind of understand if people don’t quite get it all. One was the extension of the state lottery division. And you know, I understand where people don’t like the lottery. But the lottery is in the Constitution. So, the only question with that bill was, “Are we going to have an entity that oversees it, or do you give it back totally to the Department of Revenue, with no appointments to oversight?” and tell them to come up with something. And, you know, if you’re not going to repeal the whole lottery then you probably need to have some kind of, you know, a state lottery division or something that oversees it. So, you know, I can understand some of those disagreements. But, we had some other strange ones. And some that, frankly, I guess you could go either way. You know, those of us in the Senate did not like Andy Kerr’s — what do they call it? — the Idaho Stop for bicycles. You know, they can run the red lights and everything?

HAYDEN: [00:05:58] That’s right.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:05:58] And so, it was a party-line vote, But, you know, POL apparently liked the bill. And, you know, I came across — I don’t know — probably about 10 that just, you know, kind of glared at me. And you look at it and then you go, “Okay. You know, I love you guys, but…”.

HAYDEN: [00:06:12] But… But…

TIM NEVILLE: [00:06:14] I only salute one flag. [laughs].

HAYDEN: [00:06:18] Chuck and Julie, here, with State Senator Tim Neville. Let me–.

BONNIWELL: [00:06:18] Well, tell us about the wonderful backbone and proudness that Republicans showed us on the Colorado Civil Rights Commission. And you guys were [to] extend it for another decade, with no real changes other than –just that the governor gets to pick out from a larger group of freaks for the commission.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:06:42] Well, I think you’re going to see — you know, and my hope is that we see –. We saw the first ruling for Jack Phillips which was, I’d say, you know — to use the term — maybe half a cake? But, uh –.

HAYDEN: [00:06:57] [laughs].

TIM NEVILLE: [00:06:57] None of the cake? Yeah.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:06:57] Yeah. It’s not complete. I’m definitely hoping that the issue with the lady from Oregon that — you know, the florist — is heard very quickly. And I do believe we’re going to have to get past an election season to be able to look at that through legislation, to either end it, changed it more, or at least get out of — get the –. The main thing is to get the Civil Rights Commission out of the judiciary — [or] quasi-judiciary focus.

BONNIWELL: [00:07:24] But you had your only chance. You had your only chance. You didn’t have to get to past the House. You could have just killed it. Obviously, you had one or two people in the Republican caucus in the Senate that were not going to end it, or modify it, or do anything else. And it gives you one great chance. And, you know, we talked to [Senator] Dave Williams. He’s going to introduce a bill. Woot woot! No chance of it going — other than to a kill committee in the House. So, it really is the one great opportunity the Senate Republicans had to stand firm and they –.

HAYDEN: [00:07:49] But we can be optimistic, Chuck, and hope there’s another chance.

BONNIWELL: [00:07:57] No, there won’t be.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:08:00] Well, the challenge — the challenge you have, you know, with 18 to 17 is, once it does come out of the committee and it hits the floor, it out of the committee. And [if] it hits the floor, it only does take one person. And you know, the votes we’re not going to be there on the floor.

BONNIWELL: [00:08:15] But why not expose the one or two people — and I’m told it was two people. Expose it! “Great! We’ll vote on it. And if you want to continue it, we’ll let the people know, and you can let the people know what your footw That That expose either one or two people killed it was two people exposed a great voter. And if you want to continue it we’ll let the people know, and you can let the people know what your vote is, rather than having a nothing compromise. And so, those who would want to continue the Colorado Civil Rights Commission, not withstanding the Supreme Court and everyone else funding the Trojans — would be exposed. Instead, it’s all hidden, and all 18 of you are blamed.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:08:41] Yeah, well, — yeah. That’s what happens when you’re in the majority party, if something does get through it doesn’t matter. You know, you’re all going to be to blame, one way or the other. I think the frustration was, there was a good amendment that was proposed by Bob Gardner — Senator Gardner. And that amendment was shot down. There was another smaller amendment which just — you know, it was more window dressing. But you know, it’s one of those things that when we hear the rest of this ruling, if there is more work on this, you know, we’re going to have to see where it goes next year. And, you know, we’ll be back to fight another day.

BONNIWELL: [00:09:18] Yeah, but you have no chance, because the House isn’t going to come — won’t be Democratic — you’re not going to take the House. So it is your last chance, at least for a whil.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:09:26] Yeah, don’t tell that to the younger Representatives [inaudible].

HAYDEN: [00:09:31] Right!

BONNIWELL: [00:09:31] We’ll keep it away from them. We’ll keep the news away from them.

HAYDEN: [00:09:31] And I wanted to come back–. We’re talking with Senator Tim Neville. And I wanted a little bit more back about Governor Hickenlooper, because one of the reasons we wanted to have you one was, you know, the legislature had worked hard to come up with some bipartisan bills regarding a couple of marijuana issues.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:09:50] Sure.

HAYDEN: [00:09:50] And then Governor Hickenlooper — without knowing that you guys were debating it and discussing it — didn’t bother to join into the debate. And then at the very end, went ahead and vetoed it, to everyone’s sort of surprise. You know, like I said earlier, my thought is that this is Governor Hickenlooper, again, sort of abandoning the citizens of Colorado, Just — and using being a governor as a total platform to probably run for something else. And I liked Governor Hickenlooper! But, you know, to me this shows: that’s the problem, I think, when you have a governor like that-. And that’s why I think this governor’s race is so important, here. You know? I mean, you want somebody who actually cares about Colorado, not just, like, I don’t know, paving the future for their political career.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:10:30] Well it’s definitely important to know where someone stands on the issues. And when the governor basically delegates to his — you know, the, you know, the information and the process to his department heads, then at least you would hope the department heads are working in good faith.

BONNIWELL: [00:10:48] Right. Right.

TIM NEVILLE: So when they don’t, and then all of a sudden —  or they seem to be blindsided, then you see that something else is going on, especially with the, you know, with cannabis legislation, in general. That’s been the case for the last couple of years. It’s frustrating, but–.

HAYDEN: [00:11:02] And it’s strange, given the fact that –.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:11:05] Okay. I’m sorry! The publicly traded companies, though, guys –.

BONNIWELL: [00:11:08] Right.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:11:08] You know, Hickenlooper is out on his tour right now, trying to get people to move to Colorado, to bring their businesses and that type of thing to Colorado. And when you take a look at publicly traded companies, out of all the states that have some kind of legal cannabis industry, there’s only two that don’t allow publicly traded companies. And so, you would like that the Governor would get that!

BONNIWELL: [00:11:28] Don’t you think it’s nice that there’s at least one, you know, one business in which the big boys cannot just come in and quash everybody else?

HAYDEN: [00:11:34] But it’s going to happen, though.

BONNIWELL: [00:11:38] Well, what is strange is that you’ve got Hickenlooper vetoing bipartisan marijuana legislation. On the other side, you’ve got Cory Gardner getting together with Elizabeth Warren to pass a pro-marijuana legislation. I mean, it’s an amazing spin of positions.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:12:00] It is, on that issue. You know, I mean, I tell people, you know, when they talked about the three marijuana bills, I said, You know, one of the focuses I’ve always had is, you know, basic freedom. So, especially with patients on the first bill — you know, the autism bill. And then, uh — on the tasting room bill, it’s like, well, you know–.

BONNIWELL: [00:12:16] Yeah. Why not?

TIM NEVILLE: [00:12:19] I mean, can you imagine? People may or may not like it, but right — what we have right now is we have a proliferation of clubs that are either quasi-legal or illegal, and no place for folks to go. And then on the publicly traded companies, I don’t think we have the transparency that we need from an ownership standpoint as it is. And we’ve done that with — you know, we’ve actually found a solution for that with, uh — let’s say the gaming industry is a perfect example. And that’s what we tried to pattern that, you know, with the folks at the Department of Revenue, similarly. And you know, I got a one — I think an hour or two hours before the veto, I got an email from our liaison with the Attorney General’s office saying, “Oh, sorry! for the short notice, but we’re going to oppose this, too.” But I can’t say I’m shocked. You know?

BONNIWELL: [00:13:10] You say that Governor Hickenlooper is out there trying to bring businesses to Colorado. Can we stop him from doing that? I mean, –.

HAYDEN: [00:13:19] Not Amazon!

BONNIWELL: [00:13:19] Yeah! We don’t want Amazon! We don’t want the stinking Olympics! We don’t want –. We barely can get home anymore as it is. You know? No effort on transportation, just — other than taxing us to death. So, just stay at the Bilderberg conference, and don’s send anymore big companies our way, and we’ll all be happy.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:13:37] Well, you know, if big companies want to come our way because this is the place to be, and it’s an opportunity area for them — great!

BONNIWELL: [00:13:44] Yeah! Well, that –.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:13:45] If it’s a question of taking your money and then giving it to them so that they can –.

BONNIWELL: [00:13:50] Exactly!

HAYDEN: [00:13:51] Right.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:13:51] That’s not the way to go.

BONNIWELL: [00:13:51] Yeah, I agree. I agree.

HAYDEN: [00:13:51] Senator Neville, one other just quick question. And I know we’ll have to let go, then.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:13:57] Sure.

HAYDEN: [00:13:57] But you brought up the gaming. And we had the Supreme Court ruling sports betting. Do you see something like that coming up next session?

BONNIWELL: [00:14:04] I bet!

HAYDEN: [00:14:04] I would bet, too.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:14:05] Well, yeah, I’m guessing it’s going to be, you know, a — something that we’re going to have to deal with. And I haven’t — I saw the ruling. We were in the middle of a bunch of other bills, and I just looked at it like it’s not something we’re going to –.

HAYDEN: [00:14:22] –deal with right now.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:14:22] –tackle probably this session. It’s, uh — you know, I use my waiter/waitress memory, you know, from my restaurant days. “Okay, that’s not in the sights yet, here.” But, yeah, it’s something we’re probably going to have to deal with, and the question is how complicated our government is going to try to make it. That’s always the fear.

BONNIWELL: [00:14:42] Yeah, our only hope is that they’ll make it so complicated, they’ll take so much off the top, that your best friend, your bookie will still be in business.

HAYDEN: [00:14:46] Yeah, it won’t be worth it. Yeah! Because you can see, the PGA came out with a statement.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:14:54] Well, that’s what they’re doing with the the cannabis business — some of the rules, and, –!

BONNIWELL: [00:14:57] Yeah, exactly!

TIM NEVILLE: [00:14:57] Yeah, they’re keeping the black in the gray market in business, because they put the legal people in No Man’s Land. And that’s — that’s just so wrong! It is just idiotic and wrong!

BONNIWELL: [00:15:12] I was talking to a major Democratic guy who’s going to be working. And I said, “How can we con the people? Do we say we’ll have more police?” And i go, “No, that’s – [inaudible].

HAYDEN: [00:15:17] Yeah! that’s right! they want it.

BONNIWELL: [00:15:17] Or, “Do you want this?” You know? They just try to figure — how do we con them like we did with the marijuana? you know? “‘Going to education.’ Ho! Ho! Ho! Ho! Those fools bought that one!”

HAYDEN: [00:15:29] You know, that is kind of funny. People say to me, “I thought it was going to all go to education.” And a part of me — I’m like, “Even I didn’t believe that!” I mean, they say that. But listen, Senator, we’ll have to let you go, here. Thank you so much for your time.

BONNIWELL: [00:15:40] Thanks, Tim.

HAYDEN: [00:15:41] [We] appreciate it, as always.

TIM NEVILLE: [00:15:43] Chuck and Julie, as always, it’s a pleasure. Take care, now!

HAYDEN: [00:15:44] All right. Thank You sir.

BONNIWELL: [00:15:45] Thank you, Senator.

HAYDEN: [00:15:46] You’re listening to Chuck and Julie. We’re down here live at the Western Conservative Summit. You can hear — every so often, you may hear clapping in the background. That’s because the afternoon session has started.

BONNIWELL: [00:15:54] And if you hear the boos, that will mean that Attorney General Sessions is [speaking]. No, people here are so polite.