A bill to cut the estate tax for farmers and ranchers passed the Appropriations Committee today on a 9 to 4 vote.

DENVER — As it did a year ago, the state Senate Wednesday gave initial approval to a measure that would recognize civil unions between same-sex couples in Colorado.

The legislation, which is now one vote away from final passage in the Senate, faces dimmer prospects in the GOP-controlled House, which killed the same proposal a year ago.

Recognizing that, Sen. Pat Steadman, the bill’s sponsor, gave a long, impassioned speech on the Senate floor promising that this new civil rights battle isn’t going away.

“It is a bill I believe Colorado is ready for,” said Steadman, D-Denver, citing recent polls showing a vast majority of Coloradans in support of recognizing civil unions.

“I will bring this bill back year after year until it passes,” he said.

DENVER — The controversial measure to offer a reduced rate of college tuition for undocumented students who live in Colorado is finally out of the senate and in Speaker Frank McNulty’s hands.

The senate, where the bill had been in a holding pattern for two months, finally voted Monday to send Senate Bill 15 on to the GOP-controlled House.

That’s where a similar proposal died last year, after McNulty assigned it to the House Education Committee, which voted it down on party-lines.

This year’s version, which creates a third category of tuition in between in- and out-of-state tuition and also allows for colleges and universities to opt out, may have the votes to get out of the House Education Committee, where the chairman, Rep. Tom Massey, R-Poncha Springs, has signaled his support.