Rep. Kent Lambert, R-Colorado Springs, says the Joint Budget Committee needs more time to finish the budget bill.
The much-awaited introduction of the state budget bill may be delayed up to a week to give the Joint Budget Committee more time to answer pressing spending questions and adjust for the next fiscal forecast.
Senate President Bill Cadman and House Speaker Dickey Lee Hullinghorst — along with the chamber’s respective Republican and Democratic leaders — agreed to waive the March 23 legal deadline for the spending bill, known in legislative parlance as the long bill.
The new deadline is March 30, though it may get introduced sooner if budget writers finish their work faster. The remaining — with final negotiations expected to end April 10 — are likely also delayed by a week.
Sen. Kent Lambert, the Joint Budget Committee chairman and Colorado Springs Republican, explained Tuesday that the move will allow the committee “not to get held hostage to the clock and to be more deliberative.”
The JBC members began work on the budget in late 2014 and worked for weeks to sift through the myriad details on the .
One reason for the delay is to give lawmakers more time to fit the budget bill into the March fiscal forecast scheduled for delivery Wednesday. The forecast will give lawmakers the target for how much they can spend.
This year’s budgeting process is particularly complicated, — the first TABOR rebates in 15 years.
The JBC is evenly split — three Republicans and three Democrats — making a majority on a number of contentious items more difficult to find. In recent weeks, the committee delayed a handful of pressing issues to the end and has reversed a number of initial votes.
Also, the budget year started with about supplemental spending bills for the current fiscal year and in the country illegally.
The two chambers hope to resolve the lone remaining dispute — — when the conference committee (JBC) meets 1:30 p.m. Wednesday.
