The House Appropriations Committee voted to advance Senate Bill 316, a budget-neutral bill that creates a comprehensive study of the Auraria Higher Education Center (AHEC) and its operating services for Metropolitan State University of Denver, the University of Colorado Denver and the Community College of Denver.

Representative Taggart, who introduced the bill, said its goal is to produce recommendations for a more efficient and effective organization that provides baseline operating services to the three schools. The bill requires the Colorado Commission on Higher Education to contract with an external vendor to provide those services if the institutions and AHEC cannot agree on a vendor.

"This has to do with the Auraria Higher Education Center. ... what we hope is a much more efficient and effective organization," Taggart said, characterizing the measure as budget neutral.

Committee members did not ask substantive questions during the hearing; no witnesses testified. Representative Taggart moved the bill to the Committee of the Whole with a favorable recommendation and the motion passed on a recorded vote.

The bill sets a completion deadline for the study in February of the year specified in the bill text (committee materials). Proponents framed the measure as an administrative restructuring effort meant to ensure continuity of operating services, not a change in funding levels. The committee advanced the bill without amendments.