Times-Call (Longmont)

$40.6B proposal would cap tuition hikes

Higher education, auto theft prevention, home health workers among priorities

- By Nick Coltrain ncoltrain@denverpost.com

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 the 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.

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 homeand 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.

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 decisionma­kers, 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.

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