The state Senate on Wednesday put its imprint on the $16.5 billion state budget by shifting money to open more driver’s license offices.
Sen. Andy McElhany, R-Colorado Springs, persuaded the Senate to adopt an amendment that would require the state Department of Revenue to spend about $844,000 on reopening driver’s license stations.
In addition, the Senate stripped out funding that the House provided to higher education last week because those programs siphoned millions of dollars away from public schools.
The Senate’s revamping of the spending plan will hold for a day or two – until the House rejects the Senate amendments and forces a conference committee to hash out the details.
The Senate debate was largely a rerun of last week’s House arguments on the 2006-07 budget.
Republican lawmakers unsuccessfully sought to block public funding for emergency contraception.
Democrats tried to cut funding for laundry machines for the prison system so the state could hire another investigator in its civil-rights office.
Senators also brought pet issues of their own as they tried to score political points as frugal fiscal taskmasters, as champions of hometown projects or as protectors of the American way of life.
Sen. Ron May, R-Colorado Springs, asked for lawmakers to shift money into fee-based funds that were depleted when lawmakers tapped the funds to cover state operating costs during the recession.
Sen. Brandon Shaffer, D-Longmont, wanted to eliminate most of the funding for the Colorado Commission for Higher Education, which he said had become a “bloated bureaucracy.”
Sen. Lew Entz, R-Hooper, sought $10,000 for the Colorado State Veterans Cemetery at Homelake.
Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, attempted to prohibit state funding for criminal-defense lawyers for illegal immigrants.
Those amendments were blocked.
Some House amendments were removed. Senators rejected a House amendment to move $7.8 million from a trust fund for public schools into scholarships for precollege programs and to vocational schools.
A House move to cut $10 million to the Medicaid program so that an extra $5 million would be available for the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center was also removed from the budget.
As backers of the additional money for driver’s license offices, McElhany and Sen. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, were proponents of one of the biggest changes made by the Senate.
“People are sick and tired of long lines,” Lamborn said.
McElhany said reopening the offices to improve services to citizens is “part of what we promised in Referendum C.”
Referendum C was a ballot measure approved by voters in November. It allows the state to keep revenues – currently estimated at $4.25 billion for five years – that would have been refunded to taxpayers under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights.
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-820-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
