Governor: It’s complicated
Calling it “about the most complicated array of bills” he has encountered in office, Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper on Wednesday applauded lawmakers for recent proposals to reform the hospital provider fee, balance the state budget and finance a $ 3.5 billion road bond — but stopped short of taking a firm position on any of the proposals.
“I think there’s some serious issues with the bill,” he said of a bipartisan effort announced this week to avoid a $ 264 million cut to the state hospital provider fee, “but it’s certainly a good start.”
Hickenlooper’s remarks at an afternoon news briefing underscored the complexity of the task ahead of lawmakers: working within the state’s constitutional restrictions on taxation to raise money for roads while simultaneously staving off deep cuts to hospitals and schools that may be needed to balance the state budget. If they go through, the cuts are expected to hit rural Colorado especially hard.
Earlier this week, top Republican and Democratic lawmakers dropped a bombshell proposal intowhatwas already expected to be a frenetic few weeks to close the legislative session. Senate Bill 267 would dedicate $ 300 million to road projects in counties with populations of 50,000 or fewer, direct $ 400 million to rural and small school districts and send millions more to rural hospitals with large populations ofMedicaid patients.
The cornerstone of the bill is a reclassification of the hospital provider fee to remove it from the state’s constitutional limits on spending under the Taxpayer’s Bill of Rights, but it’s far broader than the hospital provider fee alone. Itwould reallocate one pot of road funding to schools, while also borrowing against the equity in state buildings to generate new revenue. And it would seek a 2 percent across- the- board cut to state agencies.
Hickenlooper on Wednesday likened it to a “Christmas tree” bill that tries to appeal to the largest number of people possible. In the end, he said, “it’s got to be balanced” with other proposals, such as a plan to raise sales taxes in order to borrow$ 3.5 billion for state road projects.