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Colorado Senate passes the state budget

Despite the partisan bickering, $26B Long Bill heads to House
Roberts

DENVER – The Colorado Senate on Thursday backed a $26 billion state budget after partisan bickering over whether Democrats were shut out of the process.

The proposed spending plan for the fiscal year that will begin in July passed 21-14. Only three Democrats supported the measure, including Sen. Pat Steadman of Denver, a budget writer, and Sens. Leroy Garcia of Pueblo and John Kefalas of Fort Collins.

The so-called Long Bill now heads to the House for consideration, a process expected to begin next week.

Senate Democrats complained that majority Republicans did not offer enough compromise on a slew of amendments proposed by the minority caucus.

Only three amendments passed during debate, including two bipartisan amendments and one amendment pushed by a Democrat.

Republicans did not advance a single amendment that had only GOP sponsorship, so it did not appear that the majority party was aiming to tilt the scale.

GOP leaders shot down several of their own party’s amendments over the course of the debate, including efforts to eliminate funding for statewide student assessments and a program that tracks vaccinations.

Both of those issues have been centerpiece conversations for the GOP this year, but leadership felt the budget wasn’t the appropriate vehicle to have those discussions.

“I would point out that there were a number of amendments from the Republican side that did not pass,” said Sen. Ellen Roberts, R-Durango. “If you want to talk about equal treatment, I think it was had on both sides of the aisle.”

The budget actually is written by the six-member bipartisan Joint Budget Committee, and the Legislature usually defaults to its guidance.

But it has become political theater each year for the minority party to lambast the majority party over the amendment phase. Democrats are in the minority this year for the first time in a decade.

“Many of the things that we believe in got shut out of the budget,” said Minority Leader Morgan Carroll of Aurora. “Many of us were shut out on access and on the ability to shape this year’s budget.”

Carroll said Democrats wanted to serve rural communities with broadband assistance, fund a pay-equity commission and assist with affordable housing, but those proposals failed.

More than $9.5 billion of the proposed budget would come from the General Fund, the all-purpose fund that comes from tax revenue. In total, it represents the largest budget in state history, about $1.6 billion more than the current fiscal year, or a 6.6 percent increase.

The spending measure proposes setting aside a total of $187 million for TABOR refunds, which account for both the current and upcoming fiscal year. It also proposes another $58 million for a refund specifically related to marijuana taxes.

pmarcus@durangoherald.com



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