Senate OKs bill to take money from roads, put it toward seniors

DENVER - A bill that would inject an extra $2 million a year into the Older Coloradans Cash Fund, including an expected $200,000 for the Pikes Peak Area Agency on Aging, received final Senate approval Friday.

The money to pay for the increase will come from a pot of cash reserved for transportation and capital construction needs, however, costing House Bill 1100 the support of all four Republican senators in the El Paso County delegation.

Sen. John Morse of Colorado Springs, the lone Democrat from the Pikes Peak region, sponsored the measure and said trading highway money for senior citizens’ help is a swap he’s willing to make. The fund for the entire state now receives only $3 million a year, and increasing it to $5 million would benefit a lot of people older than 60 in need of transportation, meals and social services, he said.

“We have limited resources and very difficult choices. Am I happy that I have to choose roads or seniors? Absolutely not,” said Morse, director of Silver Key Senior Services in Colorado Springs before being elected. “But to me it comes down to: I value seniors over roads for two million a year.”

Money in the Older Coloradans Fund is distributed across the state to area agencies on aging, which then typically give the money to local nonprofits that serve seniors. The Pikes Peak agency gets about 10 percent of the fund because about 10 percent of the seniors in Colorado live within its jurisdiction, director Mike Decker said.

The money is especially needed by those between ages 60 and 65, for whom Medicare and Social Security typically haven’t kicked in, Morse said. The funding was reduced during the recession of 2002 and 2003, he said.

But Sen. Dave Schultheis, R-Colorado Springs, contended every dollar is needed to address a multi-billion-dollar backlog in transportation projects.

“The fact of the matter is, the older Americans have the greatest amount of wealth as a group than any other group,” Schultheis said.

Six other Republicans joined Schultheis in voting against the bill, which heads to Gov. Bill Ritter.