Some agreement on state budget plans

DENVER – They said it couldn’t be done, but a committee of legislators and private citizens actually reached bipartisan agreement Wednesday on a handful of measures to address Colorado’s perennial budget headaches.

But there was no agreement that the Long-Term Fiscal Stability Commission’s recommendations amount to the systemic fix that many experts say the state needs to mend its budgeting process.

After hearings that lasted all summer and well into the fall, the group, composed of state legislators and non-voting private citizens, proposed:

• To create a substantial budget reserve, the “rainy-day fund” that has eluded the legislature for years. Funding would begin when the current recession ends.

• A commission to recommend a package of changes to the constitution’s fiscal provisions. Principal targets: Amendment 23, which mandates annual increases in state K-12 education funding; the Gallagher Amendment, which sets a ratio for commercial and residential property taxes; and the Taxpayer's Bill of Rights, which restricts revenues.

• A comprehensive study of the state tax code, the first in a half century, to be performed by the University of Denver using private funds.

• Easing fiscal reporting requirements for public universities and colleges. Facing opposition from Gov. Bill Ritter, the commission dropped a plan to allow the public schools to set their own tuition rates.

• Expanding joint ventures between public agencies and nonprofit entities to save costs.

All the measures will be submitted as legislative bills or resolutions in the next session, which begins in January. To create the fiscal policy review panel, a popular vote will also be required.

“We accomplished more than I thought we would,” said Sen. Rollie Heath, D-Boulder and the chairman of the commission.

Arguably the commission’s biggest step was to endorse a rainy-day fund equal to 15 percent of the general fund budget. But the measure that was adopted came under Republican criticism for committing no funding until the economy rebounds. An alternative proposed by Sen. Greg Brophy, R-Wray, would have begun filling the rainy-day fund immediately.

Rep. Lois Court, D-Denver, whose version of the rainy-day fund was adopted, said Colorado couldn’t afford to begin setting money aside in the current recession.

“If we had started putting 4 percent in right now, we’d be creating a Sophie’s Choice: Do I save today’s child or tomorrow’s child?” she said.

Rep. Cheri Gerou, R-Evergreen, said the group’s Democratic legislators -- Heath, Court, Rep. Mark Ferrandino, D-Denver, and Sen. John Morse, D-Colorado Springs -- had done little to fix the state’s structural problems.

“The constitutional commission will come out with the findings that they want to eliminate TABOR and they want to raise taxes,” she said, noting that the commission will spare elected officials the political risks of attacking TABOR directly.

Of the five recommendations, the constitutional commission was the only one to receive no Republican votes.

“You had bipartisan support at the get-go,” Gerou told Heath. “You lost it.”

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