About the only thing that’s changed for Al White at the Colorado Legislature this year is the title on his name plate.

His district still encompasses Northwest Colorado; he basically has the same job as one of the six members on the Joint Budget Committee; and he still has the same office on the third floor of the Legislative Services Building, across the street from the Capitol.

But now he’s Sen. Al White, R-Hayden, and he will be taking the oath as one of 35 state senators when the 2009 General Assembly convenes Wednesday in Denver for the annual 120-day session.

“The economy has to be the big elephant in the room,” said White when asked about his expectations for the session. He had just received quarterly revenue estimates, which revealed lawmakers must cut up to $600 million out of the current fiscal year’s budget because of a shortfall in income, corporate and sales tax revenue.

More than $1 billion may need to be chopped from the budget that Gov. Bill Ritter proposed for the next fiscal year beginning July 1, White said.

“It was a little more drastic than I anticipated,” White said. “I don’t think we should have any sacred cows. I think everybody’s budget is going to have to be on the table, except perhaps budgets for which we get a leveraged return on our dollar.”

White successfully won his bid to replace term-limited Sen. Jack Taylor for the Senate District 7 seat in November’s general election. White’s former House District 57 seat was won by Randy Baumgardner, R-Hot Sulphur Springs, in his first bid for elective office.

“I have no background in politics,” said Baumgardner, a rancher who is retiring as a maintenance worker for the Colorado Department of Transportation. “I just looked at some of the ways that (CDOT) did business and thought we could do it better.”

Baumgardner has been assigned to the House Transportation and Energy Committee, from which he hopes to have a voice in the way highways and bridges are built and maintained.

He was disappointed, however, at not getting appointed to the House Agriculture, Livestock and Natural Resources Committee because his other major issue is Colorado’s water policy.

“I have not drafted any water bills per se, but my focus will be on water,” Baumgardner said. He particularly is concerned about projects that could take a greater percentage of water out of the Colorado River Basin to quench the thirst of Front Range cities and towns.

“I’m not saying other counties don’t have problems, but there’s got to be some way to work them out to where everyone benefits,” he said.

Baumgardner’s second committee is the House Education Committee, where he admits he will have a big learning curve, but probably will be one of the group’s most conservative members.

“Being a new member, I’m just going to kind of hold my cards and see how all the (budget issues) work out,” he said. “I know there are some things out there to bring more money into the system.”

Baumgardner agrees with White that the slipping economy will be the overriding issue of the session.

“I don’t believe it’s bottomed out quite yet, but I’m hopeful we’ll start back up soon,” he said, adding that he plans to sponsor one of several bills to stimulate the economy.

The rookie legislator said he is working on language for a bill that would streamline the permitting process for clean coal technology, as well as looking at legislation dealing with severance taxes and federal mineral lease royalties.

“Whether it goes anywhere or not remains to be seen, but we will at least stimulate the conversation on clean coal,” Baumgardner said.

White said one of the first bills he will sponsor will deal with reparations paid to ranchers for elk damage to pasture and hay, which has been a perennial problem in Northwestern Colorado for several years.

“The Colorado Farm Bureau approached me on a bill that has to do with a timely response from the Division of Wildlife once game damage notice is given by a rancher,” White said. “If ranchers are more satisfied with what the division is required to do and if the division responds in a timely fashion, hopefully that will calm some of those broiling waters.”

White also plans to correct a problem he admits he helped create a few years ago when he sponsored a bill giving the state’s three gambling towns more flexibility in how they spend historic preservation funds.

The Colorado Limited Gaming Control Commission recently questioned some of the spending by Black Hawk city leaders, including the awarding of more than $1 million in grants to Mayor David Spellman during a five-year period.

“I’m going to rein in their ability to misspend historic preservation funds because they are taxpayer dollars,” White said. “We may have screwed up in the past. I got lied to and taken advantage of so I need to set the record straight.”

Neither White nor Baumgardner is introducing legislation regarding the controversial oil and gas development regulations recently adopted by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission.

“So far I’m just sitting back to see what rises to the surface,” White said. “I’m waiting for the various stakeholders to point out to me what they really think does and doesn’t work.”

Baumgardner said hopes to work with the Legislature’s majority Democrats to find solutions to budget, water and energy issues.

“We are going to have to put partisan politics on the back burner and try to find out what’s best of the people of Colorado and for our districts,” he said. “We are elected by districts but when we step out on the floor we have to look for the answers for all the people.”

Republicans are outnumbered in the House, 27-38, while the Democrats picked up another seat in the Senate for a 21-14 majority.