This week’s meeting between the legislature’s Joint Budget Committee and Gov. Bill Owens was a mutual admiration session, with lawmakers thanking the governor for his leadership on Referendum C fiscal reform and Owens praising lawmakers who participated in shaping the measure and getting it passed.
It was a worthwhile day of gushing – the goodwill stored up this week will come in handy next year when statehouse budget discussions will be short on ceremony and long on impact.
For the first time since 2000, state officials will have money to fuss over. Owens is promoting a budget proposal that would flood the state with transportation dollars. Legislators surprised by voter rejection of Referendum D will surely tilt another way, perhaps emphasizing education or health programs.
Specifically, the governor is proposing a 4.1 percent increase in general fund spending next year, to $6.5 billion, with a recommendation that new funds be used to restore funding to programs cut during the recent recession. Had Referendum C failed, Owens said he would have had to propose a 2 percent spending decrease. Still, Owens said the budget remains billions of dollars below where it would have been had the recession not occurred.
The biggest battle will likely play out over how to split some $440 million of Referendum C money this fiscal year and $505 million in the next. Owens would devote the largest chunk this year to fixing roads and bridges, and indeed the need is great. Lawmakers are eyeing education, health care and higher education. All are worthy recipients, too. JBC Chairman Tom Plant says committee analysts believe the governor has overestimated the amount of money that should automatically be funneled to transportation based on a state formula. The governor estimates $216 million; the JBC believes it’s closer to $124 million. In addition, the governor is seeking an $80 million supplemental for the current year to make up for massive cuts to the transportation budget in the last four years.
We see the governor’s proposal as a starting point for negotiation and Owens himself says he doesn’t expect to get everything he asked for. Of the $80 million request, Plant says politely, “I would anticipate that that’s not the action the committee will take.”
For the next several months, the JBC will work the numbers and the options, and in March the panel will make its own recommendations to the full legislature. We’re confident that the letter of the law and the intent of Colorado voters will be honored at every step of the process.
