The legislative session is coming to a swift close. Lots of bills have been sitting somewhere, and now we are saddled with the immediate task of hearing them on second and third readings, as well as settling the differences of Senate amendments.
It is a time when legislators are tired and on a short fuse and when mistakes easily can be made. It is a time when we really have to be on our toes. We have been on the House floor till close to midnight on a few nights.
We did pass the School Finance Act, and it was funded in accordance with the Constitution and, specifically, Amendment 23. My frustration is that we did not do enough to pay down the “negative factor.” I keep trying to find more money for this and tried to amend House Bill 1384, which will use the state’s unclaimed property trust-fund money to start a new program to fund affordable housing. My amendment instead would have used that money ($100 million) to pay down the “negative factor.”
We all want to help with affordable housing, but we must make priorities, and I believe that we must first pay what we owe our K-12 schools. Unfortunately, my amendment failed.
I am on the Capital Development Committee and one of the most important bills this year is the Senate Bill 270, which expands the responsibilities of the “state architect.”
One of my biggest frustrations in the Legislature is that we are not keeping up with the maintenance of our state buildings, and we don’t even have a good inventory of our building and property holdings. Many of our buildings are not even in use, some of which we are spending money in upkeep.
An example of this is the 42-acre Department of Human Services facility in Grand Junction. This facility has 48 buildings, of which 24 currently are being used and maintained. This facility originally was designed to house 900 developmentally handicapped patients. There only are 23 patients in the facility now.
The issue is more complicated than it may seem, and the needs of these patients must be considered. Some of them have been in the facility for more than 40 years. However, I talked with Department of Human Services and was told that there is adequate alternative placement for these patients in the Grand Junction area.
It is my opinion that this valuable piece of property, that has outlived its usefulness, should be sold and the money be used in other places.
However, the Legislature has had other ideas. It passed a bill in 2014 to form a task force to study this problem. The task force will meet for almost two years and must have a report by December 2015. In the meantime, the taxpayer is footing the bill for this operation.
SB 270 will give the state architect the authority to evaluate and advise the Capital Development Committee and the Legislature about situations such as in Grand Junction. The state architect also will prioritize capital development projects for the Legislature, which has not been done before. Hopefully, this will increase the efficiency and effectiveness of state government.
J. Paul Brown represents House District 59 in Colorado’s General Assembly. The district encompasses Archuleta, La Plata and San Juan counties and parts of Montezuma County. Call Rep. Brown at (303) 866-2914 or email him at jpaul.brown.house@state.co.us.
