A panel looking at the state’s long-term budget problems recommended legislation Wednesday to give voters the chance to overhaul the state constitution in 2012.
The proposal would create a new, one-time method to amend the state constitution, allowing voters to consider recommendations made by a special “fiscal-policy constitutional commission” of 19 citizens.
The idea was approved Wednesday on a 4-2 vote by lawmakers serving on the Long-Term Fiscal Stability Commission, a 16-member panel looking at how to address the state’s perennial budget crisis. Only the six lawmakers on the panel have binding votes, and Democrats prevailed on a party-line vote.
The commission also recommended legislation that would:
• Create a rainy-day fund that would grow to 15 percent of general-fund revenue.
• Ask the University of Denver to conduct a comprehensive study of the state’s tax system.
• Give colleges and universities more flexibility on financial aid and enrolling international students.
• Make it easier for nonprofits to pitch public-private partnership proposals to the state.
Some on the panel noted the similarities between that body and the constitutional commission to be created by the legislation proposed Wednesday.
“This creates a commission to do what this commission was supposed to do,” said Amy Oliver Cooke, a conservative talk-show host who is a Republican-appointed member on the fiscal stability commission.
But Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder, the chairman of the commission and the proponent of the constitutional panel bill, disagreed. He said that the fiscal stability commission was scheduled for just 12 meetings — not enough to consider major constitutional changes.
Critics from multiple political perspectives say spending mandates and limits in the state constitution have created an everlasting budget crisis in Colorado. However, there is disagreement about which constitutional restrictions are the problem: the spending limits or the spending mandates.
The creation of the constitutional commission would have several hurdles to clear. First, lawmakers would have to approve by a two-thirds vote a measure to be referred to voters in 2010 to create the panel.
The measure also would give the commission power to recommend multiple constitutional changes, going beyond the single-subject limit for constitutional amendments already in the constitution.
Once the commission recommended its constitutional fix, lawmakers would have to vote on whether to recommend it to voters. The legislature, though, couldn’t change the proposal, nor could it derail the proposed amendment.
The commission, which could change its proposal based on lawmakers’ recommendations, would then put its final product to voters in 2012.
