DENVER – Ten hours of debate Thursday and 93 proposed amendments to the state’s $28.6 billion budget was not enough for the state House of Representatives. They came back early Friday with the intention of wrapping things up.
Instead, they resparked the partisanship from the night before.
Rep. Dave Williams, R-Colorado Springs, again brought up an amendment that would remove funding for a program that allows undocumented immigrants to acquire driver’s licenses in Colorado.
Opponents argued that the program increases driver safety by allowing undocumented immigrants to go through the same process as citizens, but Williams, who has sponsored multiple pieces of legislation targeting immigrants this session, saw it differently.
“It’s another program that attracts illegal aliens to our state,” he said.
The statement sparked a heated response from Democrats, including House Speaker Crisanta Duran, D-Denver, who said it was an attempt by Williams to taint the legislation that started the program and promote partisanship and an alternative-right ideology.
“This isn’t a partisan issue, this is a safety issue,” said Jovan Melton, D-Aurora. “We should be ashamed in Colorado, absolutely ashamed for using this as a political football.”
The debate over the controversial amendment lasted an hour before it was voted down, 44-21. Seven Republicans voted against the measure.
That was just one of the 20 new amendments proposed for the state budget Friday morning.
Several amendments killed Thursday night were brought up during closing statements Friday, but they were shot down again. Among them was a measure to eliminate PARCC testing that died on a 35-30 vote, with two Democrats, representatives Steve Lebsock, D-Thornton, and Dan Pabon, D-Denver, siding with the GOP to do away with the test.
Now that it has passed second reading, the budget will receive a final vote by the House on Monday before being sent to a conference committee to iron out differences between the House and Senate.
With the Joint Budget Committee having final say, it is unlikely that many of the amendments will stick, and the budget will largely resemble the draft that was introduced in March.
That means Colorado will be staring down the barrel of cuts to hospitals, $264 million, and transportation, $110 million, and a $48 million increase to the K-12 negative factor.
Several pieces of legislation remain under consideration that could counteract some of the cuts, such as Senate Bill 267, which would do away with the need to refuse the federal matching dollars that are being cut from hospitals, and House Bill 1242, which would ask voters to approve a sales tax increase of 0.62 percent to generate more than $650 million annually for transportation over the next 20 years.
Both of these bill are awaiting hearing in the Senate.
lperkins@durangoherald.com
Budget amendments
Of the 113 amendments proposed to the state budget by the House of Representatives, 28 were adopted by the House, including:
Appropriation of $16 million from the Marijuana Tax Cash Fund for the creation of affordable housing and job training for homeless individuals and former criminals, which was approved by the Senate and restored by the House.
Moving $40,000 around in the Department of Corrections to provide tampons to inmates.
Shifting almost $16 million in funding provided to hospitals to those most vulnerable to closing under a budget that cuts $264 million from the Hospital Provider Fee.
Restoring $1.5 million to the tax incentives for filming companies that come to Colorado to produce movies.
A request that state funds not be used to sue local governments on behalf of private corporations.
Included in the long list of amendments that died were a number of attempts by the GOP to increase funding for transportation by: increasing copays on medications, reducing the state’s reserve, cutting the budget for every department in state government except for education and defunding Medicaid for adults without dependent children.
