DENVER—Communities surrounding Colorado’s casino towns could get $5.1 million in state funding restored this year under changes made to a plan to balance the state budget.
The deal, worked out on the fly on the floor of the state Senate on Wednesday, now must pass another vote in the Senate and must be approved by both the House and the committee that writes the state budget.
The state normally uses a portion of gaming revenue to give grants to communities near gambling towns who don’t get the direct benefit of gaming taxes but deal with effects like extra traffic and increased crime. The state planned to distribute $5.1 million in grants this year but Gov. Bill Ritter froze the money to help plug a growing shortfall in the budget.
Under the deal backed by the Senate, communities would get that money this year but would lose $2 million of the $5.9 million they’re expected to get next year.
That $2 million would help undo a $5 million cut to a fund used to cover the costs of managing state unemployment benefits, a fund that is expected to go broke in about three years. Lawmakers from both parties feared that would eventually lead to businesses having to pay more to support the fund.
It was not clear if that deal to save the fund will hold because of where the rest of it is coming from—$2 million from a severance tax fund and $1 million state universities use to compete for National Science Foundation grants.
Republican Sen. Al White, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, said he thinks there will be enough money to give communities this year’s $5 million in gaming grants because the state is getting more federal Medicaid dollars than expected.
Teller County said the loss of the money meant it would have to cut back from two ambulances to just one, leaving the county without any EMS service if the single one had to make the four-hour trip to Colorado Springs and back. The town of Victor had been counting on the money to cover most of its EMS and street maintenance budget.
“It just wasn’t fair. Those people were counting on this,” said Republican Sen. Mark Scheffel, who represents towns who have previously won grants.
The deal was worked out as senators gave initial backing to a total of $475 million in budget cuts and transfers to balance this year’s budget, actions that are on top of about $1.5 billion in budget balancing moves approved last year.
A final vote is scheduled Friday.
