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Craig — The Colorado State Legis­lature’s 2008 session could bring a mix of statewide and local controversies.

Moffat County’s State Rep. Al White, R-Win­ter Park, begins his time in Denver this month and has a few ideas of what may come up in 2008.

White hopes to establish a funding source for higher education. One possibility he sees is to expand gam­bling within Colorado by lifting the $5 betting limit and allowing casinos to operate 24 hours a day.

“This isn’t because we want to, but because (gambling revenue) is a large, untapped pool of funding,” White said. “When Referendum C expires, there’s a strong possibility that we will have to privatize higher education in Colorado.”

Including the Univer­sity of Colorado and Colorado State Univer­sity, White said.

Referendum C, which was passed in 2005, allows the state to keep revenues that would otherwise been sent back to taxpayers. It will sunset in 2010.

He estimated those two provisions could raise anywhere from $50 million to $100 million a year.

Higher education needs a considerable amount of help, and that need is only going to increase in the future, White said.

He would like to see that extra revenue dedicated to higher education, with some proceeds going toward establishing a gambling addiction support office for those “caught in the throws of gambling addiction,” he said.

White never viewed gambling as a moral decision, he said.

“I think it’s a personal, individual decision to make,” White said. “I never viewed it as immoral, especially when it’s under the auspices of government supervision.”

White also has been linked to concerns about the state Constitution.

It is too easy to amend the Constitution, and that has created a bloated, contradictory governing document, White said.

“The whole chain of adoption is spiraling out of control,” he said.

According to a Rocky Mountain News article, the Colorado Constitution has been amended 52 times since 1980, compared to the U.S. Constitution, which has been amended 27 times in 217 years.

The Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, which requires a popular vote to raise taxes and limits revenue increases for the state, has been commonly mentioned in statewide media as a key Constitutional amendment that might need retooling, also.

White is not as interested in reforming that provision, he said.

However, it will be hard for the Legislature to find money for education, transportation and health care without more revenue, he added.

“One way or another, I think we can handle education, either through some proposition or another to find a dedicated revenue source,” White said. “In order to address transportation and health care, the voters are going to have to vote to increase taxes on themselves, and there is not much drive for that in Colorado right now.”