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JBC advances package of budget and policy bills and removes one draft from its list
Summary
The Joint Budget Committee voted to introduce a broad package of bill drafts that staff presented during the hearing. The committee also removed the bill to create an Office of Judicial Discipline Ombudsman from its list and agreed to take associated savings for the current and next fiscal years.
Committee staff presented a series of bill drafts and technical cleanup bills during the hearing and the committee approved introduction for a broad set of them. Several of these were budget-related housekeeping or program repeals the committee decided to carry into the session. At the same time the committee removed a bill concerning the creation of an Office of Judicial Discipline Ombudsman from its bill list, and members directed staff to take the appropriation off the books for the current and following fiscal years.
Items the committee approved to introduce (motions recorded on the transcript) included, among others:
- Deposit bond forfeitures in judicial collection enhancement fund (LLS 925). Committee approved introduction with staff and sponsor assignments and instructed staff to work with OLLS on technical drafting. (Motion passed on record.) - Repeal Colorado Student Leaders Institute. Committee introduced the repeal and added staff authority to draft technical corrections. (Motion passed 6‑0.) - Repeal state administration of school-administered proficiency tests and related appropriations. Committee moved to introduce the repeal with staff authority for technical corrections. (Motion passed 6‑0.) - Repeal of the recovery-friendly workplace program and repeal of the Colorado School of Mines performance contract were introduced as housekeeping/repeal items and given technical drafting authority. (Motions passed 6‑0.) - Multiple K‑12 and higher-education adjustments and charter-school institute changes were authorized for introduction; staff and sponsors noted those drafts would be split, tightened or carry appropriations clauses as directed on the record. - A technical bill adjusting transfers to the State Highway Fund and related cash‑fund transfer schedules (modify general fund transfers to State Highway Fund) was introduced and will run with the long bill.
On the Judicial Discipline Ombudsman bill the committee heard objections among members to housing the office within the Judicial Department; members agreed to remove the bill from the committee's bill list and instructed staff to take the previously proposed appropriation out of the current and next biennial budgets. Representative Serota and other members said they supported taking the money out while preserving space for stakeholders to reconvene and propose a new approach in future sessions.
Most of the bill-introduction motions passed on unanimous voice or by unanimous recorded consent. Committee members asked staff to return with final drafts that include appropriations clauses where required and to split broader titles into sharper bills where members requested narrower scopes.
