Ten state higher education schools joined the University of Colorado on Monday in attaining enterprise status, freeing them from constitutional limits that have constrained tuition increases.
The Legislative Audit Committee voted 6-1 to approve the enterprise status, which means the schools will receive less than 10 percent of their money from the state, and revenues from tuition will not count under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights limits.
“This is the final big step in bringing higher education into the modern era,” said Rick O’Donnell, executive director of the Colorado Commission on Higher Education.
Enterprise status under TABOR, which limits government spending, was designed to allow government agencies that have significant non-taxpayer revenue to operate more like businesses.
Using an opinion from the Colorado attorney general’s office, auditors determined that the stipends that pay schools $2,400 per in-state student and fee-for-service contracts that subsidize graduate education do not count toward the 10 percent TABOR limit for the schools.
The audit committee’s approval, which does not require a vote from the full legislature, is the final step for Adams State College, the Colorado Community College System, Colorado School of Mines, both Colorado State University campuses, Fort Lewis College, Mesa State College, Metropolitan State College of Denver, the University of Northern Colorado and Western State College to qualify under enterprise status. The University of Colorado obtained enterprise status last year.
Committee member Sen. Norma Anderson, R-Lakewood, feared that two referendums up for a vote in November would provide enough money to schools that they would exceed the enterprise designation. But other committee members said it probably wouldn’t be enough.
Rep. Fran Coleman, D-Denver, voted against the enterprise designation, saying the state needs to put more money into schools to make sure low-income students can receive higher education.
Staff writer Arthur Kane can be reached at 303-820-1626 or akane@denverpost.com.
