The state Senate Friday approved a measure that lawmakers hope will begin the process of getting their offices back into the state Capitol. 

Senate Bill 306, the last Senate bill in the 2023 session, was introduced Wednesday evening and run through the Capital Development Committee, Senate Appropriations and second reading in the Senate Thursday. It won a 35-0 vote Friday morning.

The Capitol Annex at 1375 Sherman St. has been vacant for several years, after the Department of Revenue relocated to Lakewood.

Renovations to the Annex would take $49.3 million, according to Senate Majority Leader Dominick Moreno, D-Commerce City, one of the sponsors of SB 306. That’s more than what’s available through several cash funds, he told the Senate Appropriations Committee Thursday.

Sen. Cleave Simpson, R-Alamosa, the bill’s other co-sponsor, said the plan is to relocate lawmakers from 1525 Sherman, on the north side of the state Capitol, back into the state Capitol. 

That would require moving out most of the staff of the Legislative Council and Legislative Legal Services, and under the bill they would go to the Annex, along with the state Auditor’s office, which is also at 1525 Sherman.

Currently, 39 lawmakers, mostly those in their first year of office, are housed at 1525 Sherman, known as the State Services Building. It has held as many as 50 in previous years.

But the decision a decade ago to move lawmakers out of the state Capitol and over to State Services has not always been popular. That’s due in part to safety concerns about people having to cross East Colfax Ave. to get to the building. 

Sen. Larry Liston, R-Colorado Springs, has jokingly referred to State Services as the “leper colony,” because no one ever wants to go over there. Other lawmakers, however, like the location for that same reason. “We don’t get to see leadership,” he added Friday. “Maybe that’s a blessing.”

But he also said they miss out on what’s going on in the Capitol, and many don’t care for the snow, the sleet and dodging buses.

Senate President Steve Fenberg, D-Boulder, told Colorado Politics Friday no firm decisions have been made about who goes where. He indicated at least some of the legislative council staff would remain in their Capitol basement offices in order to be close to the legislature.

Sen. Barbara Kirkmeyer, R-Brighton, joked the bill should be allowed to decide all the space in the state Capitol. That’s including the first floor, which is where Gov. Jared Polis’ office is housed. 

But she also asked why they can’t use the tunnel system to get across either Colfax or 14th Avenue and avoid the weather and safety issues. She said the line of questioning started off as a joke, but then got serious. 

That prompted Fenberg to announce that Kirkmeyer’s office was being relocated to the tunnel. Moreno then asked for a third reading amendment, which he said would relocate the offices on the first floor to the tunnels.

The real amendment was a technical correction, and that passed on a 34-0 vote.

Moreno said one of his long-term goals is to move all vehicles currently parking in the circle around the state Capitol to the Merrick parking garage at 14th and Lincoln, which drew some boos from his colleagues.

“Our Capitol would become the grounds that it should be for all to enjoy,” he said. 

If there’s an intent to move all parking to Merrick, “we’ll need another tunnel,” Kirkmeyer quipped.

The bill now heads to the House for consideration in the session’s final four days.