Colorado lawmakers unveiled a state budget proposal Tuesday that would provide more money for higher education, address long waitlists of jail inmates with competency issues and boost pay for home health care workers.
Those are among the highlights as legislators look to spend about $40.6 billion in the next fiscal year, which begins July 1. The bipartisan Joint Budget Committee will now usher the bill — one of the few must-pass measures considered by the General Assembly each year — through the legislature and to Gov. Jared Polis’ desk in coming weeks.
Most of the money in the state budget is already spoken for in the form of dedicated federal funding and service-specific cash funds. The Colorado Department of Health Care Policy and Financing, which administers the state’s joint-federal Medicaid program, alone accounts for just under $16 billion.
But the wiggle room in the spending proposal, also known as the long bill, sets the stage for fights over the state’s priorities.
Lawmakers have already celebrated some wins, chief among them proposing the constitutionally required level of funding for K-12 education after years of shortchanging it through the use of the so-called budget stabilization factor.
“For the first time in more than two decades, we aren’t balancing the budget on the backs of students,” said Sen. Rachel Zenzinger, an Arvada Democrat and vice chair of the budget committee.
Here are more highlights from the budget proposal:
More money for higher education
Lawmakers would increase funding for the Colorado Department of Higher Education to more than $1.6 billion, or about $112 million more than the governor’s November budget request. The increase comes with a 3% cap on tuition hikes for undergraduate students at state universities and expectations that out-of-state tuition would not rise more than 4%.
“It was hard this year because the starting point was lower than I wanted, and I think all of us were deeply uncomfortable with (the governor’s proposal),” Zenzinger said of higher ed funding.
The legislature’s proposal includes $25 million for need-based grants and $1.5 million specifically for scholarships for students who were homeless in high school. Those scholarships would help those students with the non-educational costs of attending school, such as housing and transportation, Zenzinger said.
$9 million for auto theft prevention
Colorado has found itself leading the wrong lists recently when it comes to auto thefts, particularly in the Denver metro area. To help reduce theft rates, lawmakers proposed $8.1 million for increased enforcement, marketing efforts to raise public awareness about auto theft risks and other efforts to stanch the number of thefts.
They proposed another $1.1 million for new DNA technology that could be used in forensic investigations.
$10 million for public defenders
Lawmakers hope to add more than 60 public defenders and support staff, as well as 10 more social workers, to the state judicial department.
Colorado Parks and Wildlife release wolf 2302-OR, one of five gray wolves captured in Oregon in an initial batch in late December, onto public land in Grand County, Colorado, on Monday, Dec. 18, 2023. (Photo provided by Colorado Parks and Wildlife)
Helping ranchers with wolf reintroduction
The bill sets aside $580,000 to hire three staff members in the Department of Agriculture. They would provide technical assistance and supplies to farmers and ranchers to help them use nonlethal means to prevent wolves from preying on livestock.
Shortening competency waitlists in jails
The budget proposal also includes $68 million to continue competency restoration services for jail inmates. The state previously used federal COVID-19 pandemic stimulus dollars to expand those services at state mental health hospitals.
The proposal would keep that effort going after the waitlist decreased by more than 100 individuals over the past year. Still, in what legislators on Tuesday called a mental health crisis, about 350 people are in jail waiting for competency restoration services so they can be declared fit to stand trial.
More money for state service providers
Budget writers originally had hoped to increase pay for the state’s third-party service providers in fields like health care and child care by 2.5% across the board, but a recent tighter-than-expected economic forecast led them to rein in the increase to 2%.
They also included a targeted increase for home- and community-based health care workers for people on Medicaid to keep their pay in line with Denver’s minimum wage.
People working with Denver-based Medicaid patients will see their pay increase by $1 per hour, to $18.29. People working with Medicaid patients outside of Denver will see their pay increase by $1.25 per hour, to $17.
Money for transgender care in prisons
Colorado recently entered a legal settlement that requires increased attention for transgender people in state prisons. Under the proposed budget, the state would spend $2.7 million to create living facilities for transgender people at prisons in Denver and Sterling.
Another $5.3 million would go to gender-confirming surgical care for transgender women in prison when they meet clinical criteria laid out in the legal settlement. That dollar figure is “based on prevailing costs and a best guess at prevalence,” according to budget documents.
Previewing a fight for legislative priorities
The long bill’s introduction kickstarts the sprint to the end of the legislation session — and primes coming fights over how to pay for other legislation.
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The vast majority of the budget proposal is earmarked for specific departments and programs, effectively leaving lawmakers with about $22 million to wrestle over. But bills introduced this year would total more than $280 million in new spending if they were all to become law, according to a tally of nonpartisan fiscal analysis tied to the proposals.
The Democratic majorities in both chambers have in recent sessions used a secret poll of members to discern the caucuses’ spending priorities. A judge ruled in January that the practice violated state open meetings laws.
Senate President Steve Fenberg had defended that practice as a way to gather data points for decision-makers, and not something that determined spending outcomes.
Now, that prioritization will mostly happen informally — “just good old-fashioned conversation,” as Fenberg characterized it — with Appropriations Committee members.
Staff writer Seth Klamann contributed to this story.
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