Senate Democrats are delaying a vote on one of Gov. Bill Ritter’s top initiatives because they’re concerned about how he plans to pay for it.
The Democratic governor announced the Government Efficiency and Management Performance Review program to reduce costs, improve services and eliminate unnecessary programs in his state of the state speech.
But Ritter’s budget managers asked for $700,000 in emergency funding to start it – a move that skips the normal process of full legislative debate.
“Normally that would be a separate bill that we could debate,” said Senate President Joan Fitz-Gerald, D-Jefferson County.
The $700,000 was added as a House amendment to a “supplemental appropriations” bill after the Senate had already approved that bill.
Fitz-Gerald said the Senate might reject the House amendment and force the governor’s office to pursue a separate bill.
The Ritter administration has already accepted bids for a contractor to conduct the review and has selected Public Works, a Philadelphia-based firm, out of nine bidders.
Evan Dreyer, spokesman for Ritter, said the administration wants to start the review as soon as possible, so it is seeking funding during the current fiscal year ending June 30.
“We’ve crafted this in such a way that we can actually identify areas to save taxpayer dollars right away,” Dreyer said. “We could certainly delay the process, but it would be a missed opportunity.”
Staff writer Mark P. Couch can be reached at 303-954-1794 or mcouch@denverpost.com.
