Committee on Legal Services approves legislative-branch budget package including Office of Legislative Legal Services request

The Committee on Legal Services on Feb. 7 voted to advance the fiscal year 2025–26 budget request for the Office of Legislative Legal Services (OLLS) and related Office of Legislative Workplace Relations (OLWR) to the Executive Committee.

Director Ed Dechecho presented the OLLS request, saying the office sought $11,255,494 from the general fund for OLLS work (excluding workplace relations) and $435,457 for OLWR, for a combined legislative-branch request of $11,690,950 — a 3.1% increase from the current year. “That will all be from the general fund,” Dechecho said when describing the request.

The budget matters because the OLLS provides legal drafting, publication and litigation support for the General Assembly. Dechecho told committee members that roughly 87% of the OLLS appropriation is for personal services and related benefits, driven by staffing and employer pension payments.

In his presentation, Dechecho broke the request into personal services and operating components and described several notable line items and assumptions. He told the committee the office totals 65.1 full-time equivalent positions (FTE) and that personal-service lines — including salaries, PERA contributions and health insurance — make up the bulk of costs. He said the request incorporates common-policy salary adjustments provisionally adopted by the legislative executive committee (a 2.5% across-the-board increase plus a 0.6% step-like increase, producing an effective 3.11% adjustment on continuation salary) and higher employer health-insurance share costs.

Dechecho identified operating-cost drivers that affect the request: contract publishing and printing with LexisNexis (the vendor that prints the Colorado Revised Statutes and Session Laws), legal-fee spending for outside counsel, and the ExDome/Exstim project. He told the committee the contract-publishing line has increased because supplement printing costs have risen since FY2021 and that the office attempted to budget conservatively for either a special session or an election-year supplement. He also noted volatility in the legal-fee line and described recent multi-year spending patterns to justify his recommended amount.

Committee members pressed on a few items. Representative Soper and others asked whether the committee should consider raising the hourly rate paid to outside counsel to improve recruitment of firms for legislative representation; Dechecho confirmed the current contract rate is $250 per hour, updated in 2021. Committee members asked staff to collect comparative data from other states and similar metropolitan legal markets to inform any future change. Representative Camacho suggested focusing comparisons on similar metro legal markets rather than a pure 50-state survey.

Dechecho described an internal reallocation: OLLS will transfer $19,581 to OLWR to support a workplace-relations consultant hire after an editorial vacancy and internal reassignments. He said the transfer allowed OLLS to reassign a staff editor to OLWR and, in turn, hire an OLWR staffer with human-resources expertise. He explained that because OLWR is a two-person office, benefits assumptions (for example, a family insurance plan) materially affect its budget.

On the proposed budget amendment motion, Representative Ron Mabry moved to amend the proposed OLLS budget “as it appears in the budget request dated 02/05/2025 and as may be amended by the executive committee.” The committee conducted a roll-call vote; the motion passed unanimously with the recorded votes as follows: Representative Camacho — yes; Senator Carson — aye; Senator Frizzell — aye; Senator Gonzales — aye; Representative Joseph — yes; Representative Luck — yes; Representative Mabry — yes; Senator Roberts — aye; Vice Chair Soper — yes; Mr. Chair — yes.

The committee will forward the approved request to the Executive Committee for inclusion in the branch’s legislative appropriation bill process; Dechecho reminded members that final appropriations may change when the long bill and session actions are complete. He also noted that some branch policies are provisionally adopted pending Joint Budget Committee action and that the legislative appropriation remains subject to later reconciliation with overall state budgeting actions.

In brief closing remarks, Dechecho reported a litigation update: Deputy Director Berry (name spelled in transcript as "Barry/Berry") successfully withdrew a subpoena against an individual named Jason Gallagher, and Dechecho described that item as closed. The committee adjourned after the vote and was notified no meeting is required on Feb. 14 because the matter was concluded.

Votes at a glance

• Motion to amend and advance the OLLS FY2025–26 budget request (motion moved by Representative Ron Mabry): Passed, unanimous roll-call vote as recorded above.