State lawmakers have 17 days remaining in the 2017 General Assembly and their plate is full of interwoven, politically dicey issues that must get sorted out for anyone to apprise this legislative session a success.
Senate President Kevin Grantham, a Republican, accused Democrats of engaging in a game of “brinkmanship” with the most important bill of the year — Colorado’s $26.8 billion budget.
The negotiations going on behind closed doors over four tangentially budget-related bills are so inscrutable itap unclear who is winning or what each party’s end game may be. All four bills deal with transportation and hospital funding in some way.
So instead of sorting out the game, we’ll lend lawmakers our two cents about how they could break this deadlock in the final days and move forward in a productive manner for the state.
First, Democrats in the House should pass two bills associated with the budget — sometimes called orbital or companion bills — so negotiations over the budget can move forward.
Rep. Dave Young, a Democrat on the Joint Budget Committee, makes the compelling argument that all five bills (the budget, the two transportation funding bills and the two hospital funding bills) should be considered at the same time for clarity of process.
But thatap not how it has worked in recent years, where the budget has been held sacred above the fray of political negotiations and moved forward as a balanced package with the assumption that changes could be made later if other, untethered legislation actually gets through the gauntlet.
Both budget-balancing bills are tough votes. One cuts funding for hospitals by reducing the amount collected by the hospital provider fee. In exchange the state will get to keep millions that otherwise would need to be refunded to voters. The other cuts transportation spending.
The first move might trigger a second: Moving forward with the budget package might actually help the GOP wrangling enough votes in the Senate to get at least one of two separate transportation funding bills through the chamber.
We have called for lawmakers to act this session to put a question to voters raising taxes to fund transportation needs in the state. We’ve supported one “grand compromise” that would do just that. is a reasonable request to voters to increase the statewide sales tax.
The Senate should keep that bill moving. We can see merit in the more fiscally conservative amendments made in the Republican-led Senate reducing the total proposed sales tax from 3.52 percent to 3.4 percent. The current sales tax is 2.9 percent. However, the reality is that doing so would mean about $100 million in cuts elsewhere in the state budget, especially when it comes to discretionary items like higher education and child welfare programs. Sent to conference committee, we’re confident lawmakers could come to a compromise on the issue that would be palatable to both parties and hopefully to voters.
We’re less impressed with , which has the ridiculous name Sustainability of Rural Colorado.
The board has long supported moving the hospital provider fee to an enterprise to take pressure off of the state budget cap that has been exceeded in recent years, triggering taxpayer refunds of “excess revenue.” However, SB 267 is a tortured piece of legislation that tries to do too much for too many pet projects with too many moving pieces, including selling off state buildings and leasing them back.
But if thatap the way lawmakers want to move forward, we hope they consider keeping the revenue cap where it is so the state can keep more money for roads without major budget cuts.
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