Lawmakers, start your calculators.
When the Colorado General Assembly convenes this week, the perennial tug of war over spending will be shaped by a blend of election- year politics and a respite from the state’s revenue restraints.
“It’s going to be tough,” said Sen. Ron Teck, R-Grand Junction. “There are going to be people jockeying for the next office. Some will be introducing bills to make the other side look bad. … Now, good public policy happens by accident.”
Lawmakers this year will be wrangling with a host of new and perennial issues, including education, health care, eminent domain and a statewide smoking ban. They also expect extensive debates on illegal immigration – an issue of increasing national concern with particular complexity in Colorado this election year. Some Republicans have declared it one of their highest priorities.
This year’s budget debate, meanwhile, will be governed by a head-versus-heart dynamic.
The hardheads will say the state doesn’t have enough money to fund every program – even with voter passage of Referendum C on Nov. 1. That measure loosens the reins on state revenues imposed by the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights (TABOR) and lets the state keep all tax revenues over the next five years.
The soft hearts will say more money should flow to the poor, children, college students and others who have been hit hard by the $1 billion in budget cuts the state made during hard economic times in the early 2000s.
But most officials will be guided by the numbers.
Gov. Bill Owens wants extra cash for roads. His chief of higher education wants more money for “unfunded enrollment” at state colleges and universities. Rep. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, called for beefed- up immigration enforcement, even if it creates an unfunded mandate on local officials.
Other lawmakers have other ideas.
Democratic House Speaker Andrew Romanoff of Denver said at least 51 bills have piled up on his desk as lawmakers prepare to return Wednesday. He estimates that 20 percent of those bills would impose new costs on state government.
“People, it seems, are eager to spend the money we just got permission to invest,” Romanoff said. “I think a lot of those folks, unfortunately, are in for a rude awakening.
“We don’t have the luxury of indulging everybody’s pet project here. The math just doesn’t allow it, the voters won’t, and the law doesn’t. Referendum C was not a blank check. We cannot engage in some wild- eyed spending spree just because that measure passed.”
The financial picture is clear: The state has more money, but officials are not rolling in dough. Current estimates show that the state will have about an extra $113 million to spend during the current fiscal year. Next year, the state will keep $625.3 million that would have been refunded because of TABOR, according to the governor’s budget director.
Most of that money will be needed to restore cuts that have already been made or to cope with the growing demand for mandatory programs such as prisons, schools and health care for the poor. That means few new spending programs or tax breaks.
Democratic Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald of Jefferson County has already warned that no new tax credits will pass.
And Republican leaders say their first priority is to ensure that the Democratic majority honors the spending commitments made to voters during the Referendum C campaign last fall.
“We feel very strongly that the voters were told that Referendum C was needed to avoid draconian cuts in future budgets and to restore funding in the areas that have been cut,” said Senate Minority Leader Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs. “The budget and where the funding goes will be huge.”
Immigration also promises to dominate debate. Republicans last week unveiled several bills targeting the impact of illegal immigration in Colorado. They want schools to start counting children who are here illegally, they want police officers to be more helpful to federal immigration authorities, and they want to bar business licenses and state contracts to companies that hire undocumented workers.
“The time for talk is over,” said Schultheis, a strong proponent for state action on illegal immigration.
Democrats also are working on the issue, saying they want employers to check the residency status of all job applicants. They also are considering making English-language proficiency a requirement for graduation from all Colorado high schools, said Romanoff.
Meanwhile, a citizens activist group, Defend Colorado Now, says it will start collecting signatures this month to get a proposal targeting illegal immigration on the November ballot. It wants the constitution to bar the state from offering most services to illegal immigrants – anything that isn’t required by federal law.
As the immigration issue heats up, House Majority Leader Alice Madden of Boulder says she is preparing a measure to set the tone of that debate. She will ask lawmakers to vote on a resolution that, in part, sets out which federal immigration laws affect the state, she said.
“Everyone’s entitled to their own opinion, but they’re not entitled to their own facts,” Madden said. “Federal law exists. Setting forth the factual lay of the land is a great place to start on any issue.”
The resolution also will offer funding increases for enforcement of state labor laws and urge Congress to fully fund its national ID program and make the federal computer system for checking Social Security numbers available to private employers.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
Staff writer Jim Hughes can be reached at 303-820-1244 or jhughes@denverpost.com.
On the agenda
Key issues facing the Colorado legislature as it begins its term this week:
Budget: Lawmakers will divvy up the extra money provided by Referendum C. Current estimates show about $113 million for the current fiscal year, which ends in June. Gov. Bill Owens wants a hefty amount – $80 million – for transportation this year, and he calls for making up lost ground in higher-education budgets next year.
Health care: Democratic lawmakers plan to revive a measure to order state officials to join a multistate pool to buy prescription drugs. Under the proposal, the state would create a program to let citizens and businesses buy discounted drugs. Owens vetoed such measures last year, so lawmakers plan to take the proposal directly to voters in November.
Smoking ban: A bipartisan group plans to pursue a bill that would ban smoking in nearly all public places, including restaurants and bars.
Homeland security: Lawmakers will continue to press the Owens administration over its handling of federal grants. A state auditor’s report in November found the program is riddled with misused funds and inadequate oversight.
State contracts: The Senate is setting up a special committee to investigate state contracting practices and will focus on flaws in how the state buys multimillion-dollar computer systems.
Pensions: Owens has put reform of the Public Employees’ Retirement Association at the top of his to-do list. The program does not have enough money to pay benefits to future retirees.
Immigration: Lawmakers have already produced several bills targeting the impacts of illegal immigration in Colorado and say more are in the works. Republicans and Democrats want to increase enforcement efforts on employers in an effort to deter the hiring of undocumented workers. Republican bills would force schools to start counting the children of illegal immigrants and require police officers to seek training from the federal government on immigration enforcement. Democratic leaders say they want to increase funding for labor-law enforcement and also put pressure on Congress for federal immigration-policy reform.
Property rights: Eminent domain, the government power to seize private property, will receive some attention at the Capitol, with lawmakers seeking to limit that power when the primary reason for seizure is economic development. The private-property interests of landowners affected by natural-gas drilling will be debated.
MARK P. COUCH
