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Steamboat Springs — Local lawmakers will take a break from an action-packed week at the Capitol to meet with Routt County residents Saturday.

Sen. Jack Taylor, R-Steam--boat Springs, and Rep. Al White, R-Winter Park, will co-host a town hall-style meeting at Centennial Hall to update their constituents about this year's legislative session, which will reach its halfway point next week.

There is no shortage of news from under the dome in Denver.

Debates about issues including a statewide smoking ban, illegal immigration laws, water rights and the budget have been overshadowed lately by the legislators themselves.

On Tuesday, House Majority Leader Alice Madden, D-Boulder, collapsed to the floor during a session of the House of Representatives and was carted out of the Capitol on a stretcher.

She recovered from feeling "light-headed" and returned to work the next day.

On Thursday, Littleton Rep--ublican Joe Stengel resigned his post as House Minority Leader after investigators revealed that he billed state taxpayers for 240 out of 247 off-session days last summer and fall, collecting $23,760. While legislative leaders have a right to bill for $99 per day of work when the Legislature is not in session, Stengel's record-setting tab included seven days that he was in Hawaii and two days that he took the bar exam.

Speaker of the House And--rew Romanoff, D-Denver, filed the next-highest tab, billing for 100 fewer days than Stengel did.

Although Stengel submitted a check Monday for $891 to refund nine of the billed days, he has maintained that he worked every day he billed for, even in Hawaii, where he checked e-mail and answered phone messages.

Finally, Sen. Deanna Hanna, D-Lakewood, is the subject of an ethics panel investigation -- announced Thursday -- after she asked for $1,400 in "reparations" from a real estate sales group that opposed her in the 2004 election. She has apologized for the request, but the panel will look into all of her campaign contributions for evidence of solicitation.

"I think they both made just bad, bad judgment," Taylor said about Hanna and Stengel. "You don't do that kind of stuff, as far as I'm concerned."

White could not be reached for comment Thursday.

Taylor said he has been "very busy" with legislation such as a tourism bill he is sponsoring with White; Rep. Tom Plant, D-Nederland; and Sen. Jim Isgar, D-Hesperus.

The bill, up for consideration in the Senate, would significantly boost state general fund spending on tourism promotion, which Taylor said would exponentially increase the flow of money into Colorado's economy.

"I think this may be the year that we nail down some real funding for tourism," he said. "This is the result of an awful lot of years of work -- people are finally starting to listen."