DENVER – The Colorado House on Thursday gave final approval to a $25 billion state budget along with a proposal to raid $20 million from a severance-tax fund.
The bipartisan vote on the budget was 45-20, with 20 Republicans voting against the measure, including Reps. Don Coram of Montrose and J. Paul Brown of Ignacio. Eleven Republicans supported the spending plan for the fiscal year that begins in July.
The bill likely will go to a conference committee to work on differences between the House and Senate versions.
Twelve amendments to the budget were passed during debate Wednesday night, including a Coram proposal that would add $5 million to extend a program that provides intrauterine devices, or IUDs, to low-income young women.
But Coram acknowledged that the funding is not likely to make it through the final process, and a separate bill he is sponsoring to secure the money is likely dead in the Republican-controlled Senate.
Because of the raid on severance-tax dollars, which is tied to the budget, and because he didn’t feel there was enough spending for rural Colorado, Coram said he could not support the spending plan.
“We have an I-25 corridor economy, and this budget is not doing the things to help rural Colorado, and we just keep expanding and expanding,” Coram said.
More than $9.5 billion of the proposed budget will come out of the General Fund, the all-purpose fund that comes from tax revenue. In total, the overall proposal reflects about $1.6 billion more than the current fiscal year, or a 6.6 percent increase.
Brown said he was frustrated that the budget didn’t include more for transportation. He had supported an amendment that would have added $15 million for transportation, but that effort failed. A proposal to secure money for a water-storage study also failed, which irked Brown.
“We’ve got to prioritize better,” Brown said. “We’re falling further and further behind ... and we’ve got to show that we’re responsible.”
But it was the severance-tax transfer that truly upset rural Republicans.
Revenue for the fund is generated from production of minerals such as natural gas and oil. Because the state is facing constitutionally required taxpayer refunds as a result of the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, or TABOR, writers of the state budget thought to utilize severance-tax dollars to fulfill obligations.
The bill passed both the House and Senate, with a bipartisan vote of 37-28 in the House on Thursday. Rural Republican lawmakers were furious.
“These communities are financially hurting,” Coram said. “There are better ways to balance this. We all know there’s money out there. It’s available. Let’s put the JBC back to work.”
Brown echoed similar comments, adding, “This money should go back to those counties and cities.”
But Rep. Millie Hamner, R-Dillon, a member of the Joint Budget Committee, said budget writers had few options in front of them.
“It’s been shown that this will have a minimal impact on the local level,” Hamner said. “If we do not use these monies, we will have to cut other areas in which we have invested.”
pmarcus@durangoherald.com
