| Capital Report |
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| Tuesday, 14 April 2009 | |||||||
After hours of debate, The Colorado State Senate gave its approval this afternoon on the 2009 Appropriations bill and the 20 other “Budget Package” bills. Additionally, the Senate passed Senate Bill 09-281 which brings Pinnacol Assurance back under the control of the state. Below is a list of the bills included in the Budget Package, and more information can be found on the specifics of each bill at www.leg.state.co.us:
The majority of the debate this morning centered around Senate Bill 09-281. This bill and Senate Bill 09-273 have been the focus of much of the debate on balancing the 2009-2010 state budget. The bills would bring Pinnacol Assurance under the state’s control and direction and would also transfer $500 million of the reserves from Pinnacol Assurance to the state primarily to offset cuts to Higher Education. Senator Shawn Mitchell (R-Broomfield) moved to lay SB 281 over behind the next five bills on the calendar as he wanted Senators to have time to review a memorandum issued by Attorney General John Suthers’ office on Friday. Suthers claimed in the memo that the legislature taking the money from Pinnacol would be unconstitutional as the money is not an asset of the state. He further said that he could not envision how the Attorney General’s office would be able to make a good faith defense of such action. The 15-page memo was obtained this morning by many Senators, and Mitchell argued they had not had time to make informed arguments based on the memo. It is traditionally courtesy to allow bills to be laid over if requested, but Senate Majority Leader, Brandon Shaffer (D-Longmont), the prime sponsor of SB 281 asked the Senate to reject Mitchell’s motion arguing that the bill was on a sensitive timeline. After some debate, the motion failed. Shaffer and proponents of SB 281 have argued that the cuts to Higher Education are completely unacceptable and that with the amount of reserves held by Pinnacol, the option of transferring the $500 million makes sense. Opponents of the proposal argue that regardless of how much money is in reserve with Pinnacol, the money belongs to the policy holders, not to the state of Colorado and that this should not be a fight pitting Higher Education against Pinnacol and business who have policies with Pinnacol. After much debate, both SB 281 and SB 273 passed on votes of 18-15. Al White (R-Hayden), member of the Joint Budget Committee (JBC) was the lone Republican to vote with the majority of Democrat Senators to pass the bills. Dan Gibbs (D-Silverthorne), Paula Sandoval (D-Denver), and Gail Schwartz (D-Snowmass Village) joined the remaining Republican Senators to vote, “No.” Senators Rollie Heath (D-Boulder) and Josh Penry (R-Grand Junction) abstained from the vote under Senate Rule 17 (c) declaring a “personal or private interest” in the bill. Following the passage of SB 281 and SB 273, the Senate debated the Long Bill, SB 09-259. JBC Chair, Moe Keller (D-Wheat Ridge) started the debate by presenting the bill and discussing that none of the choices were easy, but the parts of the bill were necessary to balance the bill. Senate Minority Leader Penry argued that the JBC had neither made nor considered other cuts that they should have considered, especially when it came to laying off or furloughing state employees and cutting other programs that were not absolutely necessary to the well-being of Coloradoans. Keller argued that no matter the cut, some group was not happy and there just were not any other alternatives that balanced the budget at the bottom line. After much debate, Senator Greg Brophy (R-Wray) moved to send the bill back to the Appropriations committee arguing there were too many issues that were still pending that should be considered by the JBC again. That motion failed and the bill eventually passed 22-12 with White, again voting with the Democrat Senators, and one member was excused. The remainder of the “Budget Package” bills passed, as well. The House of Representatives began caucusing this morning in anticipation of the budget moving to them on Tuesday. There is still discussion of looking at removing tax credits and tax exemptions although the idea does not seem to be getting much traction as it would take some time to realize any money from most of these credits/exemptions, and the state needs the money in this budget year. The House Appropriations Committee will convene at 7:30 Tuesday morning to hear testimony on the Budget Package including the Long Bill and SB 281. It is likely that the bills will all pass the Appropriations Committee and be discussed by the caucuses soon after. The bills could be heard on the House Floor as early as tomorrow afternoon. We will send further updates as they happen, and please let us know if you have any questions. Click here to download this report |
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| Last Updated ( Tuesday, 14 April 2009 ) | |||||||
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